The French in Vietnam
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2022
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The conflict we know today as the Vietnam War–involving the United States and the Viet Cong–was actually the second of the Indochina Wars, the first having been fought shortly after WW2 between France and the Viet Minh.
In this episode James is joined by Dr Pablo de Orellana of King's College London, whose new book focuses on the often forgotten conflict that he calls the First Vietnam War.
Dr Pablo's book The Road to Vietnam: America, France, Britain, and the First Vietnam War, is available here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. I'm your host James Rogers and we've got an old friend back on the |
| 0:04.2 | history hit warfare podcast Dr Pablo Diorelana from Kings College London. |
| 0:09.4 | He's got a new book app. It's called The Road to, and it focuses on what he calls the first Vietnam War. |
| 0:16.2 | That war that pitted Imperial France against the anti-colonial Vietnam rebel alliance after the Second World War. |
| 0:25.1 | He also explains how across this period the French then ultimately tried to persuade the |
| 0:30.6 | Americans to join a fight against what the French called a fascist-aligned, Viet Min, the idea |
| 0:37.1 | that Hoichi Min was for some reason a fascist, but then a whole range of tactics that led the Americans to be persuaded that now they were a communist, Soviet, Chinese aligned Vietnam. |
| 0:50.0 | And then, of course, for the Americans to fund the French and then to start their own war through the 60s and the 70s. That idea that if Vietnam fell, |
| 1:01.3 | well it would be the first in a series of dominoes that would fall that would lead to the defeat of capitalism. |
| 1:08.0 | I know you're really going to enjoy this history. |
| 1:10.0 | Pablo's been able to unearth so many hidden gems from the archives. |
| 1:13.8 | Here's Pablo de Irelana the History at Warfare Podcast podcast how you doing today? |
| 1:34.7 | Very well thank you very much for having me back James. Not a problem at all it's great to have you back |
| 1:39.8 | and it's crazy to think that it's over a year since we last spoke on this |
| 1:44.8 | podcast. Tell us how have you been? What have you been up to? I've been very well. |
| 1:48.5 | I've continued to research the history of nationalist ideas. Right now I'm working on research exploring how the new |
| 1:55.0 | nationalists Trump and company are applying their ideas trying to create their world by changing |
| 2:01.0 | global rules. The new nationalists and new norms. Is that going to be a title for your book? |
| 2:06.0 | It sounds like a good title for a product. Indeed, I should consider it. Thank you. |
| 2:09.2 | You can have it. You can have it. See, I always gain something from here. |
| 2:15.8 | Now I know you're super busy, so thank you so much for taking the time. You're a lecturer at Kings. |
| 2:17.4 | Tell us how is term going. |
... |
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