Featuring Sean Fear, lecturer in international history at the University of Leeds.
Episode 1
A discussion of the life and times of Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnamese nationalism and communism, the French and Japanese occupations of Vietnam, and more.
Episode 2
Examines the history of South Vietnam, focusing in particular on the life and times of Ngô Đình Diệm, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and U.S. foreign policy in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Episode 3
Discusses Lyndon Baines Johnson's decision to escalate the war in 1964-1965, the political rivalry between Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, South Vietnamese ideology, the Tet Offensive and the Huế massacre.
Episode 4
Covers the early period of Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's reign, Richard M. Nixon's "Vietnamization" strategy and the war's expansion to Laos and Cambodia, the American anti-war movement, and North Vietnam's position after the failure of the Tet Offensive.
Episode 5
Talks about the situation of South Vietnam after the Tet Offensive and Huế massacre of 1968, including developments in rural South Vietnam, urban South Vietnam, and the increasing delegitimization of the administration of Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's government.
Episode 6
Covers the last stages of the American War in Vietnam, including the political situation in North and South Vietnam in the early 1970s, U.S. bombing campaigns, the peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam, the Easter Offensive, the Paris Peace Accords, and the final fall of South Vietnam.
Episode 7
This final narrative episode of the series discusses Vietnam's postwar history, including the unification of North and South Vietnam, the Vietnam-Cambodia war, the Vietnam-China War, the U.S. trade embargo, and various economic and political developments that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. The group concludes with a discussion of modern Vietnam, and where the country finds itself today.
Episode 8
In the final episode of the series, Danny, Derek, and Dr. Fear are joined by Nu-Anh Tran, assistant professor of history at the University of Connecticut, and Fredrik Logevall, the Belfer professor of international affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and professor of history, for a discussion about the historiography of the Vietnam War.