This is the first episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

Is Vietnam still with us? Does this misbegotten American war still have something to teach? In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall, a preeminent scholar of the long war in Southeast Asia, delves into why U.S. leaders defied their better judgment and plunged the country into a quagmire that would haunt America for generations. The story may begin in 1965, when President Johnson sent the Marines into Da Nang, but the deep origins of the war take us back to 1945.

Recommended reading:

Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall