Episode Details

In this episode, we explore why america lost the vietnam war. Imagine you are Ho Chi Minh during World War II. You're leading this revolutionary group, the Viet Minh. Yeah. And you're fighting against the occupying Japanese forces in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Right. And your biggest ally, the country that is actually supplying you with weapons and training and strategic support, is the United States. Yeah. Operating through the OSS, which was basically the precursor to the CIA. Exactly. But then... you know, fast forward a couple of decades, and that exact same alliance turns into one of the most brutal, complicated, and just devastating proxy wars in human history. It really is one of the most profound geopolitical whiplashes of the 20th century. I mean, you go from a collaborative effort for national independence directly into this meat grinder of a conflict that totally reshaped the modern world. And that is exactly why we are here today. Welcome thought removing him would stabilize the region, right? That was the hope, but it achieved the exact opposite. South Vietnam just plunged into total political chaos. You had a revolving door of military generals overthrowing each other in Saigon. Just constant coup. Yeah. The U .S. watches this and realizes the South Vietnamese government is on the verge of total collapse. The Viet Cong are winning. Washington knows they have to intervene directly, but they need a reason. Which brings us to a massive turning point in 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Our source material details this pretty heavily. What exactly was reported to the American public and what actually happened? Well, in August 1964, the U .S. government reported that an American destroyer, the USS Maddox, was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats while on patrol. OK. Then they claimed a second, unprovoked attack happened two days later