Episode 24: Sir Max Hastings on Vietnam

At the end of last week's episode with Dan Carlin, Dan recommended 18th Airborne Corps podcast host Joe Buccino invite Sir Max Hastings onto the show to talk about Vietnam. Joe did. Episode 24 was born.   Over the past five decades, Sir Max Hastings, legendary journalist and military historian, has written more than two dozen books, reported from some of the most violent places on earth, and researched some of the most important moments in world history. Despite all he's seen and done, he keeps coming back to the event that shaped his career: the Vietnam War.   Hastings began reporting on the war from both the White House and the combat zones at age 24 in January 1968. Over the next seven years he made one trip after another to various battle fronts for the BBC, observing every critical moment in that war, to include the collapse of the South Vietnamese regime in 1975. He's since revisited that war in his writings many times, most notably in an exhaustive, almost 900-page history "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945 - 1975," released in 2018. A thread running through that book is that reporters on the ground, including the author, misunderstood the nature and context of the war and misread the American strategy.   Sir Max visits host Joe Buccino for episode 24 of the 18th Airborne Corps podcast for an introspective discussion about what Hastings and his cohorts got wrong during the war and what we now know and understand. This episode dives deep into the philosophy of the northern communist movement, the desire of the southern farmers, and why William Westmoreland deserves more credit than most accounts allow. If you are interested in a true understanding of Vietnam, the complexity of grand strategy, or the nature of war itself, this discussion is worth your time.   We release new episodes of the 18th Airborne Corps podcast every Tuesday and Thursday. The show offers insight and wisdom for Army leaders from history, current events, or future technology. If you have a suggestion for the show, please reach out at [email protected].