This is trend following radio where great thinking comes alive.

Nobel Prize winners, legendary traders, bestselling authors, and the pros that know what drive us irrational human beings.

I am your host, Michael Covel, not filtered, raw, honest.

That's my passion.

One of the joys of this podcast is that I get to scratch my itch.

Today on my show is a guest who knows a lot about subjects that I have a deep interest in.

This would be the Vietnam War and some of the key actors like the President Lyndon Johnson

and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

Brian has written many books on the subject and the men.

Definitely worth checking out.

He is a history professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

And one of the great things about this podcast, when I have that itch, is that I just reach out to people directly and say, hey, will you talk to me? Can I have you on? Brian agreed. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Brian Vantamark. You have got your newest book on the Vietnam War, a new take on it.

You've got a book on LBJ.

You've got a book on McNamara.

Your guy that spent a lot of time in these subjects.

Now, how did you get going down this particular path as a historian?

I think a lot has to do with what we mentioned just a moment ago, which is I was born in 1960,

grew up in the 60s and early 70s. The event that dominated American society

in politics was the Vietnam War. The controversy, the polarization, the animosity was so palpable.

I wasn't touched by that. I was impressed by that. I had friends in my neighborhood who had older

brothers who had to make choices between serving or avoiding the draft. So it was a very real

and vivid issue in America during the years that I was growing up. As I got older, that

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