Podcasts Help America Heal from the Vietnam War, Fifty Years Later
The fall of Saigon happened April 30, 1975. A half-century later, podcasts chronicle the war for future generations, and keep alive the memory of those who died.
If you have visited the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, you know it’s a very intense scene.
Friends and family members cry.
Some touch the wall. Others sketch the names of the dead onto paper.
Loved ones leave behind cards, flowers or pictures. Even an occasional can of beer.
No matter what time of day, or what time of year, I leave with the same knot in my stomach after I visit. Decades later, Americans are still coping with a distant war that snatched someone from their lives.
If you’d like to learn more about Vietnam as we mark the fall of Saigon a half-century later, I recommend the following podcasts:
Echoes of the Vietnam War - The memorial fund that takes care of the wall has an active podcast that’s almost 100 episodes deep. Definitely worth a listen. Stories about soldiers, special ops guys, nurses, conscientious objectors, PTSD. I especially recommend the episode called Front Man, about Bruce Springsteen’s friend who died and how that inspired his song The Wall.
Napalm in the Morning - This podcast looks at the war through movies. Who doesn’t appreciate a nod to Robert Duvall’s famous line in Apocalypse Now? This podcast makes you realize America has coped with Vietnam through Hollywood. There are episodes about Good Morning Vietnam, Born On the 4th of July, Platoon, Rambo, Full Metal Jacket and Forrest Gump.
Nixon At War - This podcast from PRX, narrated by Kurt Andersen, rolls through tons of amazing archival sound. Also tucked inside the feed is LBJ’s War, narrated by David Brown from Public Radio International. If you love learning about how official Washington messed up, sending more than 58,000 Americans to their deaths, then this podcast is for you.
American History Hit - This stellar podcast, hosted by Don Wildman, is focusing heavily on Vietnam this month. Check out these episodes: Vietnam: The End of War?, Vietnam: Conscientious Objection in a Warzone, and Vietnam: The My Lai Massacre.
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John Wordock served as Executive Editor and SVP for Podcasting at Westwood One from 2019 to 2024, helping build Cumulus Podcast Network into a top ten network and top channel on Apple Podcasts. He also used to be Executive Producer for podcasts at The Wall Street Journal until 2019. He now runs his own consulting company, John Wordock Media. You can reach him at John@JohnWordockMedia.com.