Ep 226: Geoffrey Wawro on the Vietnam War

School of War

Geoffrey Wawro, founding director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and author of ⁠The Vietnam War: A Military History⁠,  joins the show to discuss the causes of U.S. failure in Vietnam.

Geoffrey Wawro, founding director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and author of <a href="https://a.co/d/bx6DkaH">The Vietnam War: A Military History</a>,  joins the show to discuss the causes of U.S. failure in Vietnam.
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Times
    •      01:21 Introduction
    •      01:50 Schools of thought
    •      07:45 Orthodoxy      
    •      13:24 A war of choice
    •      17:49 Ambivalence       
    •      20:15 Korean nightmare      
    •      23:53 Lessons
    •      28:38 Policy makers
    •      32:34 Obvious flaws   
    •      37:10 Ground war
    •      42:21 South Vietnam 
    •      51:30 Certain defeat
    •      56:21 Local politics
 
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This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history.&nbsp;Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and former China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras. The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.&nbsp;&nbsp; Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. <a href="https://schoolofwar.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our Substack for episode transcripts</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/school.of.war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow along on Instagram</a>