Episode 3

1964. At the Pentagon, America’s future in Vietnam is played out in two rooms. The war game is meant to test whether bombing North Vietnam can force a communist retreat. But the simulation points to a devastating conclusion: whatever America does, the North will keep fighting, the Viet Cong will keep being supplied, and the war cannot be won on Washington’s terms.
The CIA sees the warning clearly. John McCone tries to make LBJ listen. But the hawks in the administration dismiss the game as theory — and when the Gulf of Tonkin gives them the trigger they need, America steps towards a war the Agency already knows is doomed.

Starring Kim Cattrall, Kelsey Grammer and Johnny Flynn.

Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall
Lyndon Baines Johnson..........Kelsey Grammer
Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn
Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia
Robert ‘Bob’ McNamara..........Rob Benedict
Desmond Fitzgerald..........Donald Sage Mackay
John McCone..........Tim Ahern
Peer de Silva..........Ian Porter
Barbara Robbins..........Lily Lefkow
Admiral Grant Sharp..........David Menkin
Tom Karamessines..........Akie Kotabe
Gerri Whittington..........Nettie Chickering

All other parts played by cast

Original music by Sacha Puttnam

Production:

Written by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox

Sound Design and Editing by Adam Woodhams, Andreina Gomez Casanova and John Scott Dryden
Assistant Director: Flynn Hallman
Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Mat Clark & Paul Clark
Margarita Sound Engineer: James Moore
Sonica Runner: Lily Lefkow

Director: John Scott Dryden
Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn
Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden.

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4