VW4: South Vietnam in Crisis

Key Battles of American History

History

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In early 1963, the Viet Cong decisively defeated an attacking ARVN force at the Battle of Ap Bac, proving that the guerrillas were a force to be reckoned with. During that same year, much of South Vietnam fell under Viet Cong control, while most of the rest of the country descended into chaos. South Vietnamese cities saw an increasing number of protests, many of which were brutally put down by the Diem regime. Ultimately, Diem was assassinated, and a junta of generals took control. In November, U. S. president John F. Kennedy also fell victim to an assassin’s bullet and was replaced by Lyndon Johnson. What effect on the war would the changes in leadership have? Listen, and Sean and James will let you know.

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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 size,
0:17.1	and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.
0:24.0	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 Battles of the Vietnam War, a 10,000-foot survey of the
0:48.7	war that defined a generation.
0:50.9	I'm your host, James Early, as always, and I am joined by my co-host and my good buddy, Sean McIver.
0:57.8	Sean, how are you, sir?
0:59.3	I'm doing good.
1:00.5	All right.
1:01.3	Well, we are going to see that things are going to start heating up in Vietnam, especially
1:05.6	South Vietnam.
1:06.5	But before we get to that, let's do what we always do and recap our last episode.
1:10.6	In our last episode. In our last
1:11.1	episode, we saw that the government of North Vietnam, now under the direction of Communist
1:15.6	Party chairman Lesuan, decided in 1959 to initiate a war with the South Vietnamese government,
1:22.4	led by No Din Ziem. But the war would not be an invasion of the South by the North, as had happened in Korea nine
1:29.6	years earlier. Rather, the North Vietnamese government would assist with the formation of a National
1:34.8	Liberation Front, later dubbed the Viet Cong by the South Vietnamese, many of whom who had been a part of,
	...

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