Christopher Goscha is a professor of history at Université du Québec à Montréal, specializing in the Cold War in Asia as well as questions of colonisation and decolonisation in the Afro-Asian world. Chris has published several books including The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam (Princeton University Press, 2022), The Penguin History of Vietnam (Penguin/Random House, 2016), Vietnam, A New History (Basic Books, 2016, American version of the preceding book and winner of the 2017 John K. Fairbank Prize – American Historical Association finalist for the The Cundhill History Prize).
We speak about his book Vietnam: A New History, specifically discussing Vietnam in the ancient, medieval, and early modern world as well as Vietnam after the Vietnam War. For many who know only about America's involvement in Vietnam, there will be much of interest and much to learn here.