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In the mid-1960s, the United States was governed by what historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called the “Vital Center”—a liberal consensus that believed in the New Deal at home and the containment of communism abroad. Yet, by 1968, this center had collapsed, assailed not just by the conservative right, but by a ferocious “New Left” that viewed liberalism as morally bankrupt.
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While the great battles of the Second World War raged across Europe and the Pacific, a complex and brutal process was unfolding in Vietnam. This period, often overshadowed by the later conflict with the United States, was a crucible of competing empires, emerging nationalism, and immense suffering. As detailed in a recent episode of “The Explaining History Podcast,” the events of 1940-1945 in French Indochina didn’t just shape the future of Vietnam; they lit the fuse on a powder keg that would explode into decades of war. This blog post delves into that critical period, exploring the key questions and…