Podcast shared by Kul Gautam
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| Thant Myint-U |
A fascinating counterfactual discussion between Professor David Runciman and historian Thant Myint-U about his grandfather U Thant, UN Secretary-General for most of the 1960s and the man who might have ended the Vietnam War before it really got started. How close did U Thant get to bringing LBJ and the Vietcong to the negotiating table in 1964? What ultimately scuppered his chances? And how differently might the Cold War have turned out if he had succeeded?
Really fascinating interview which I strongly recommend to all who are interested in Viet Nam. There was so much that I had not known about the backgrounds of U Thant and Lyndon Johnson. Also most surprising to me was how much the late SG had involvement in highly delicate political matters and what influence he brought to bear on matters of state. It is too bad, in retrospect, that his views and suggestions were not successful in preventing another useless, destructive and inhuman conflict that affected millions of innocent human beings.
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