Michael is joined by Mat McLachlan, war historian & founder of Australian Battlefield Tours, regarding the Vietnam War which officially ended on this day in 1973 and was the longest in U.S. history until the Afghanistan War (2002-2014).

Involving conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1st November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the Vietnam War usually refers to the period when the United States and other members of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation) joined the forces with the Republic of South Vietnam to contest communist forces.

On January 23, 1973, President Richard Nixon announced that Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s chief negotiator, Le Duc Tho, signed an agreement to end U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

The official cease-fire, along with the release of all American prisoners of war, came into effect on January 28, although troops would remain in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975.

The war was extremely divisive in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and elsewhere because the U.S. failed to achieve a military victory and the Republic of South Vietnam was ultimately taken over by North Vietnam

Download this podcast here