Guantánamo Bay is usually discussed as a prison.
In reality, it is something far older — and far more revealing.

In this episode of History Declassified, we trace how the United States came to control Guantánamo Bay in the first place, and why that control has never ended. The story begins not with the War on Terror, but with the Spanish–American War of 1898, the US military occupation of Cuba, and a treaty signed under conditions that permanently reshaped Cuban sovereignty.

We examine the 1903 lease agreement, the Platt Amendment, and the legal framework that allowed the United States to retain “complete jurisdiction and control” over Cuban land without formally annexing it. We then follow Guantánamo through the twentieth century — from a quiet naval outpost, to a Cold War flashpoint, to a legal anomaly whose ambiguity would later be exploited in moments of crisis.

This episode is not an argument for or against Guantánamo Bay.
It is an investigation into how power embeds itself through law, how treaties outlive the circumstances that created them, and why some outcomes of empire never resolve — they simply persist.

Support the show

🎙️ History Declassified is a production of Option 3 Media (O3M)
Follow us on X: @Option3Media_
For sources, transcripts, and bonus content, visit https://option3media.substack.com

If you enjoyed the show, follow, rate, and share — it helps us keep digging.

In July 1974, Cyprus was torn apart in a matter of weeks.

What began as a coup backed by the Greek military junta ended in a full-scale foreign invasion, the collapse of a state’s constitutional order, and the permanent division of an island. Turkish forces landed under the legal justification of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. A ceasefire followed. Then diplomacy failed — and the invasion expanded.

In this episode of History Declassified, we examine the events of Cyprus 1974 in full detail:
the coup against President Makarios, the Turkish invasion, the role of Britain as a guarantor power, NATO’s paralysis, and the decisions taken — and not taken — by the United States and its allies.

Using declassified documents, official records, and contemporaneous accounts, this episode traces how a crisis inside NATO was managed, why intervention stopped short, and how a temporary military operation became a frozen conflict that still defines Cyprus today.

No speculation. No commentary. Just the record — and the consequences.

Support the show

🎙️ History Declassified is a production of Option 3 Media (O3M)
Follow us on X: @Option3Media_
For sources, transcripts, and bonus content, visit https://option3media.substack.com

If you enjoyed the show, follow, rate, and share — it helps us keep digging.

In the summer of 1381, thousands of ordinary people marched on London and forced a fourteen-year-old king to negotiate.

England was still reeling from plague, war, and economic collapse. Labour laws had frozen wages, taxes were enforced with growing brutality, and authority was exercised through officials who no longer feared those they governed. When resistance spread across the countryside, it did not take the form of riot or chaos, but of coordinated action with clear demands.

At Smithfield, King Richard II promised sweeping reforms. Serfdom would end. Justice would be restored. Order would be rebuilt on fairer terms.

Days later, those promises were withdrawn. The leaders were executed. The movement was dismantled.

In this episode of History Declassified, we examine the Peasants’ Revolt not as a failed uprising, but as a moment when power hesitated — and revealed how it survives. A story of pressure, concession, and retraction, and of how close medieval England came to a different path.

Support the show

🎙️ History Declassified is a production of Option 3 Media (O3M)
Follow us on X: @Option3Media_
For sources, transcripts, and bonus content, visit https://option3media.substack.com

If you enjoyed the show, follow, rate, and share — it helps us keep digging.