The British Army's deployment to Northern Ireland in August 1969—initially welcomed by Catholics as peacekeepers—unwittingly created the conditions for decades of conflict by alienating Protestants who saw their own army as an occupying force.

(02:15:06) model of how to defeat an insurgency. a lesson for the Americans in Vietnam which the Americans did not heed and they think well by these standards this is going to be pretty straightforward as far as I you know can you imagine them saying to each other as far as I understand it there's a load of Protestants there's a load of Catholics the Protestants are kicking seven bells

(02:15:22) out the Catholics our job is to go in tell them to stop separate them and then we can all go home bang job done and at first they are welcomed with open arms I mean you can see the news footage you can see photos you can read the reports online Catholics shouting at them thank you for coming. People clapping and cheering them. Uh stories about in dairy, uh people would bring them fish

(02:15:45) and chips, you know, people would kind of winch fish and chips up the city walls to them and stuff. There was a in Peter Taylor's book Brits, he has um a quotation from an interview with a soldier in Belfast. I felt like a knight in shining armor. Kids were following you everywhere. There were tea and buns and sandwiches. They'd be out there with trays. So, I must have put on about a

(02:16:06) stone, this guy says. You can see photos of soldiers leaning on their armored cars. They're showing kids their guns. They're chatting up housewives. It's very chummy. In fact, so chummy that old Republicans were shocked by it. So Brendan Hughes who was later the commander of the IRA in Belfast said he said as a you know I was young and I can remember people bringing them tea at the