This series features Nu-Anh Tran, assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, and explores her book Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam.

Episode 1

Discusses the ideologies of independence movements dating back to the 1920s, the Japanese occupation of World War II, the Việt Minh, the roles of the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo religious movements in anticolonial resistance, the outbreak of the Anti-French Resistance (First Indochina) War, and more until the Geneva negotiations of 1954.

Episode 2

Picks up at the 1954 Geneva Conference and the partition of Vietnam. The discussion covers the implications of partition, President Ngô Đình Diệm’s struggles to centralize control, the 1955 Battle of Saigon, the Bình Xuyên Force, the Cần Lao Party, and more until the Autumn of 1955.

More episodes coming soon!