Challenging the Narrative of Vietnam's Inevitable Victory

On resistance and reform in southeast Asia.

Historian Sean Fear talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about Vietnam on the 50-year anniversary since the end of the war.

• How is Vietnamese identity wrapped up with the notion of resistance?

• Is Chinese influence as great as resistance to China?

• How is the ‘American War’ thought about in Vietnam today?

• How similar is Vietnam to China: defying Fukuyama’s thesis by retaining a state-socialist political system while adopting capitalism?

• Why has Vietnam achieved rapid growth and development while neighbours have failed?

• How is Vietnam reacting to being at the centre of Trump tariff disputes?

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Links:

• The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building, Sean Fear, Tuong Vu (eds.), Cornell UP

• /115/ Singapore Shangri-La ft. Lee Jones

• Post-Cold War Vietnam: stay low, learn, adapt and try to have fun – but what about the party?, Adam Fforde