War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello, and welcome back to Key Battles of the Vietnam War, a 10,000-foot survey of the war

that defined a generation. I'm your host, James Early, as always. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host, John McIver.

Well, Sean, we're going to get into some pretty nasty fighting today, aren't we?

I would imagine so.

Yes, sir.

We're going to see what the Vietmen and what the French can do against each other.

But before we do that,

let's recap our last episode, as we always do. So in the last episode, we saw that Vietnam,

a nation whose origins stretched back millennia, gradually came under French influence until it was

officially made of French colony in 1885. We also saw that, as is often the case with non-European nations

ruled by one of the great European powers, French rule over Vietnam was harsh and exploitative,

benefiting French business and military leaders, plus a few Vietnamese collaborators,

at the expense of the overwhelming majority of the Vietnamese people.

And we also discussed how World War II shook up the established order in Vietnam

as Japanese forces seized control of the country. Their reign was even harsher than that of the

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