Fredrik Logevall traces the path that led two the United States and France to lose their way in Vietnam. Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam opens in 1919 at the Versailles Peace Conference and concludes in 1959, with a Viet Cong ambush on an outpost outside Saigon and the deaths of two American officers. In between come years of political, military, and diplomatic maneuvering and miscalculation, as leaders on all sides turn an avoidable struggle into a bloody reality.
Guests:
Fredrik Logevall
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Comments [9]
Fascinating segment. As someone in their early 40s I've always had what I think of as Vietnam Nam fatigue. This broke through!
The bottom line on this is the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington and the Million plus Vietnamese dead. American Imperialism pure and simple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Politics_of_Heroin_in_Southeast_Asia
And involvement with US's involvement with organized crime.
Surprised that the author does not refer to Alfred McCoy's thesis in "The Politics of Heroin" that US's SE Asia involvement was also a 'contuation' of opium wars where we were using access to opium to finance secret wars.
What a GREAT discussion. However, FDR died on April 1,2 1945--not August.
In the "Pentagon Papers" it was alleged that Ho Chi Minh wrote 8 letters to Truman asking him for Protectorate status similar to the Philippines to get out from French rule as he felt the US did abide by its agreements there.
Does Mr. Logevall think the "domino effect" was the real reason the US went into Vietnam or just an excuse? If it was an excuse, what does he think the real reason was?
Great segment.
Listeners may be interested in these ”Startlingly unique images of yesterday’s Vietnam”
http://www.joshlevinefineart.com "Circa Vietnam"
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