Good Morning Vietnam

Key Battles of American History

History

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Sean and James discuss the 1987 film Good Morning Vietnam, a war-comedy film starring Robin Williams as Airman First Class Adrian Cronauer, a charismatic and irreverent DJ assigned to the Armed Forces Radio Service in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Set in 1965, the film follows Cronauer as he energizes the troops with his unfiltered humor, rock music, and offbeat broadcasts—much to the dismay of his rigid superiors. Loosely based on a true story, the film was a critical and commercial success, earning Williams a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding
0:10.7	right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its
0:16.4	size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.
0:23.9	Welcome to Key Battles of American History,
0:26.7	a podcast in which we discuss American history
0:28.9	through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.
0:32.7	Here is your host, James Early.
0:43.4	Music host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to key films of the Vietnam War.
0:46.7	I'm your host, James Early, as always.
0:50.2	And also, as always, I'm here with my good buddy, Sean McIver.
0:55.0	This week, we are going to talk about a film that is totally different from any of the other ones that we've discussed.
1:02.0	It's in a class by itself, as I said, at our last episode, our last film episode.
1:07.4	And I thought I would match this one up with the regular episode on the American Combat Soldier.
1:15.8	It's a little out of order chronologically.
1:18.5	The events in this film take place pretty early on in the War 65, 66, and so on.
1:24.1	But like I said, it's about a DJ who does his best to improve the morale of the
1:31.6	American combat soldier and Marines and other personnel, of course, not just Army soldiers.
1:36.1	So that's why I pushed this one pretty far down the list. I imagine some of you listeners
1:41.7	were wondering, gee, is he going to do this one? But the film, of course, is the 1987 comedy slash war classic.
1:50.2	Good morning, Vietnam.
1:53.7	Who could forget that?
1:54.8	I'm guessing that among all the 13 movies we've done, this is going to be the one that a lot of the, the most seen by y'all,
	...

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