How did the United States get involved in Vietnam ? What role did the army have after the french defeat at the NbN fu Why were Green Berets created and what was their role in Vietnam for answers to these questions and more Vietnam War insights . Stay tuned . Welcome to the U . S . Army history and Heritage podcast , the official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History . The Center of Military History , writes and publishes the army's official history , manages the US Army Museum enterprise and provides historical support throughout the U . S Army . Mm hmm . Mhm . Hello everyone and welcome to the United States Army history and Heritage podcast . I'm lee Reynolds , the strategic communications officer for the Center of Military History . In this episode , Part one of a five part series on the Vietnam War . We are discussing how and why the United States got involved in Vietnam with a focus on the army role , especially with the support of advisers and the creation of the Green Berets . Joining me to lead us through this discussion is Vietnam war historian Dr eric b Velarde . Welcome american . Thanks for joining me . Well , thanks for having me so a little background on Dr Valerie . He is the digital military historian for the U . S . Army Center of Military History and one of the army's leading Vietnam war historians . He wrote a volume in one of the U . S . Army Center Military's history army combat operations in Vietnam War series titled staying the course October 1967 . to September 1968 , which was published in December of 2017 . He's currently riding a volume On the US Army Combat Operations in Vietnam , October 1968 to December 1969 . Outside of CMH Dr Ballard is also the founder of the Vietnam War History Foundation , a nonprofit organization that has over 44,000 members on its Facebook group . He appeared as an on air historian for the TV documentary Raw War , the lost film of Dokdo , which premiered on the American Heroes Channel in March of 2014 . He's also appeared on the Heroes of Hamburger Hill documentary which aired on Fox Nation . And he has a historical consultant to the new york Historical Society , Vietnam magazine and to ken Burns and Lynn Novak for their Vietnam War documentary series . Wow , that's a mouthful . That's a lot on a lot of history , a lot of Vietnam . Uh , but what am I missing about your background ? Well , that covers most of the bases . I think I kind of always been a Vietnam War historian , bye bye . Interest by training . And uh it will always be the focus of my professional career . But um , as my role as a digital historian for the center , which is something I started doing about seven years ago . Some of the other things that I do for the center and that helped inform me with the Vietnam War research are doing things like doing photo restoration , doing digital mapping , doing web site design basically some of these software techniques that for me as a historian , help me understand things like the Vietnam War in much better detail than I feel like I could accomplish any other way . Because , you know , having a map on google earth , for example , that shows what everything looked like back then allows me a deeper understanding . And so hopefully that's helped inform the research I've done for the books and for the center . Yeah . And having these maps in the books . But also you developed the Vietnam War website for the Center of Military History as well . And so people can access what you're talking about and see them there as well . So , great work . Well , let's get this discussion started . Vietnam hot topic has always been a hot topic . Um , so let's talk about in this episode . We want to cover really the beginnings what got us into the war . Um , so let's start our discussion with what I know . President Johnson uh called in his famous speech Why Vietnam . So how and why did the United States and particularly the United States Army get involved in Vietnam war , I guess at the time it wasn't called Vietnam . It was french indochina . Well , again , this , it's always uh , a sort of a topic of debate is like , where do you start ? Like , what is , what is the point ? What is the date that you choose to say ? This is when we're gonna start thinking it as the Vietnam War . Uh , there's a lot of different , uh , you know , possibilities . But for our purposes , I think we should start in 1945 . This is the moment where Southeast Asia , which includes Vietnam Laos and cambodia become something of a strategic interest for the United States . Again , 1945 , we're nearing the end of World War II . In this place that was a french colony for about a century includes Vietnam Laos and cambodia , collectively known as indochina by the french . The japanese control . This , this , this part of the world and , and have have done so since really the start of the war . So in 1945 there is this sort of ragtag bunch of Vietnamese who are fighting the Japanese . Uh , their name is Vietminh or the shortened name , it basically means sort of a Vietnamese national front led by this person named Ho chi Minh . Ho chi Minh was not his real name . Um , he had many aliases during his life , but this is a , the person who had been fighting to achieve Vietnamese independence for decades . He was a communist . He was a nationalist . You could be both at the same time and the United States took an interest in Ho chi Minh and his Viet nam fighters because as the american forces in the allied forces began advancing steadily towards Japan again . The idea is that we're going to have to probably invade Japan to finish the war . Um , you have a lot of allied aircraft flying over places like Vietnam . And so we began working with Ho chi Minh and his followers to help for example , find and locate some of those allied pilots who had to crash land . And so we parachuted in a team of experts from the O . S . S . The forerunner of the CIA , effectively Office of Strategic Services . These are covert agents and they parachuted in to work with okay man and his followers . In fact Ho chi Minh , um at the time this team um parachuting and was was was quite ill . Um and this isn't a person living in the jungle for years . And so he was possibly on death store and it was american doctors that helped kind of bring him back to life . So this is why the americans first get involved is to help this person . But when the war ends , Ho chi Minh , uh and his father has decided , okay , this is what we've been fighting for . We now get our own country , They go into hanoi and say uh make a big speech saying , you know , basically thank you America for helping us . We believe in your ideals . And now , you know , we expect you to help us have our own country and in that speech . I believe he he really was targeting the United States for support . And he even uses the declaration of Independence to use his passages from it . Ho chi Minh is a shrewd guy . He understands his audience , he understands that he needs american support if he's going to get his country back and not the french because he thought because President Roosevelt um had said that Vietnam would , would be allowed to be an independent nation because we weren't going to support the french going back at the war . FDR had supported the rights of indigenous populations and he was very much an anti colonialist . But as we know , he dies late in the war and is replaced by President Truman and Truman is sort of cut from a different cloth . And Truman does not have the same kind of commitment to this anti colonialism . So what actually happens is when the war ends , President Truman decides that in fact it makes more sense for the United States to support France . Not Ho chi Minh . So instead of France , uh being kicked out or you know , being removed and ho chi Minh taking over the United States says , look , we really need french help resisting the communists in europe . The french are very upset that they lost their entire colonial empire . Okay , we'll let them return . So this sort of moment of cooperation with Ho chi Minh passes very quickly . So about what time did the french really come back in and then Ho chi Minh starts the speech and you know , Japan surrenders September 1945 , Ho Chi Minh gives the speech and within a matter of months , it's clear that the United States is not going to support him . So the french return to power and and and insult to injury . In fact the french actually rearmed some of the Japanese who they just defeated to help put down Ho chi Minh and his followers . So I mean it's it's it's it's kind of an ugly situation , the british come back . You know , basically all the colonial occupiers say , okay now France is back in control . So so within a year by november 46 Ho chi Minh and his followers start an open war against the french occupiers . So that's the start of the first indochina war . How did that progress ? Because then we've got um china starting to come under Mao Tse tung . And so what was the relationship then ? Because now Ho chi Minh is leaning more to the Communists . Well this is a person who is a lifelong communist anyway , so it's not surprising , but for the first couple of years , Ho chi Minh and followers are basically a guerilla force , not well armed , you know , living in the jungles and in the mountains , but already combat hardened but combat hardened and incredibly dedicated , very disciplined and their numbers begin to grow because they have popular support . There's so many people , you know , Vietnamese , they said , yeah , we don't want the french here . So his support grows in the countryside , The main Turning point happens in 1950 , okay , that's the year when for example , the korean war begins , right ? So the United States is now fighting in Asia , it's also the year that Mao Zedong's communist forces take over in china . So now china is a massive communist superpower . And that's the moment where china begins giving substantial military aid to Ho chi Minh and it changes the entire game because they share a common border and now the Viet Minh are getting modern equipment , artillery , small arms , All the logistical support to fight . And so by 50 the war goes from a bunch of ragtag guerrillas to now the french are and in real trouble . And this is the this is the year the United States creates an advisory group , the first one for Vietnam for Vietnam . It's actually called the Military assistance advisory group Indochina because there is no Vietnam yet . But who are we advising at the time were advising the french National Forest is so that would be the french troops plus the Vietnamese troops fighting on behalf of the french . And and the Vietnamese Emperor bao Dai , he's supposed to be the leader , but it's really a friends calling the shots , but we're supporting and advising the french and their Vietnamese allies . Yeah . And and and again , I just want to point out there is no North and South Vietnam at this point , China Indochina , one nation . So then um how does all this progress ? So again with , with china's assistance , uh Vietnam gathered more and more territory and strength , they begin building up their forces to begin operating as Battalions and regiments and divisions . And by 19 the end of 1953 , the French are really on the back foot . And so what what happens is you have a showdown in this remote mountain valley called Gambian fu . It's in the northern part of Vietnam , what is now Vietnam . And it is again basically a showdown between some of the best french forces and some of the best Vietminh forces . And the reason this is important is both sides have agreed to have peace talks in Geneva and so and essentially whoever wins this battle is going to have the upper hand negotiations . The problem is french kind of shows a bad place to have . This showed empty . Is this remote valley where the Viet Minh basically took the high ground dragged artillery over mountains and now begin bombarding the french in the submission . The United States actually thinks about Employing nuclear weapons at one point to help the French . Um and and well other than that , you mentioned that we had an advisory group . So did we actually have american service members to on the ground . This was , I mean , we had at this point we're talking just maybe a couple 100 advisers and these advisers are essentially technical um personnel who are helping um transfer surplus World War two american equipment To the French . So by 1954 , of all France's war effort in Indochina is american aid money equipment like you look at all the vehicles they're using the stuff we use to defeat nazi Germany and we turn it back and give it to them . So our mag into china team , that's essentially what they're doing is they're providing the stuff , they're not doing much in the way of training and they're not in D and D and food , they're not in the line of fire . Ultimately , the Vietminh with chinese assistance , uh , close in and overrun the garrison at Dien bien phu . And so in May 45 The garrison falls . And this essentially , um , you know , sort of seals the deal with the peace talks . So when the Geneva accords are signed in July of 1954 , uh , it's clear that France has got to go . I mean , they , they accept that there's no way they can state . However , uh , the uh , the french don't give up everything in the sense that with the soviet in actually helping out Ho chi Minh only gets to control half the country . So the deal in Geneva is Let's divide what is Vietnam into two parts Along the 17th parallel because Ho chi Minh and his followers are quite strong in the north , frantic agrees . But in the south there much less strong than they are in the north . So let's divide the country into two parts for two years and then let's hold a national referendum and that will decide ultimately Who controls a reunified Vietnam . So that's the outcome of the Geneva accords , is and that was in 54 , But now in the United States , we have a different president . We've got Eisenhower who's um um took over 53 . And so how is he handling the situation ? Well , again , other than , you know , briefly considering using tactical nuclear weapons ? And that was yeah , that was Eisenhower administration . Again , that they they quashed that idea pretty quickly . Probably wouldn't have worked anyways . But Eisenhower's feeling is okay , and again , keep in mind , this is The Korean War has also come to an end in 1953 . So , Eisenhower's feeling is now that you have these two Vietnam's Mhm , let's support the southern half , let's help build them into an anti communist nation . Right ? So is this the beginning of what we've come to known as the domino theory ? It was the genesis effectively because the fear was now that you had this massive communist china and of course , the Soviets who are happy to support wars of national liberation . If you didn't hold the line , you would have this what they call domino effect a tumbling of nations that would go communist . And if you didn't hold the line in Vietnam . If you didn't support this new South Vietnam , then who's next ? Yeah , because this , this is , you know , in the heart , this is the early phases of the Cold War . So this was fought in Korea . We held the line against the communists there , domino theory now in Vietnam . And so Eisenhower sees that as a need to prevent the communists from taking over . And Korea is very much a model . And we should never forget this , even though you might say we we fought the war to a draw . Um , you didn't re unify Korea under a non communist government . The fact is , you you held the line and prevented the communists taking over . So that's very much the same thing . Let's do the same thing in Vietnam . Let's build the South Vietnam that can resist that can be like the , the finger in the dike . Right ? So , so then from 54 , Uh , through the rest of the Eisenhower administration , what was America's involvement in Vietnam ? So during this period , you know , 55-1960 uh , the american advisory group , which is now Mag Vietnam because there is now a republic of South Vietnam . There is a South Vietnamese nation um , under this president named no , didn't see em a catholic , The role of the American advisory program begins to expand , as do its number . So by the end of like 1960 , you have about 685 U.S . advisors and you had mentioned before , it was mainly technical . Now it's expanding to uh , doing direct advising and training . So it's technical , but it's also actually going out there on the training courses and we've got army personnel on the ground , absolutely have army person on the ground . Again , it's relatively small numbers , so they're not everywhere , but they're in important places . I mean they're advising , you know , the division commands and the and the and the core commands . So now you actually have american advisers . By the end of 1960 , working with the South Vietnamese . But then early 61 , we have a new president again , President John Kennedy . And so we're expanding . President Kennedy is coming in . Um he too wants to appear hard on the communist , you know , stop , stop the domino theory , the expansion of communism and so he wanted to expand the commitment . Can you explain how that and and the reason this kind of came about is is through the , you know , the final years of the 19 fifties , these communists who stayed behind in South Vietnam , a lot of them went north , but some stayed behind . President Diem tried to eradicate them And got a lot of them and not everyone , but by the end of the 1950s , these communists in South Vietnam started an armed insurgency , they decide , okay , obviously it's not gonna be a popular referendum like that ship , is that never happened ? Right ? So now we're going to sort of restart the Guerilla War . So when Kennedy becomes president in 1961 , these Communist guerrillas who are known now by the pejorative term Viet Cong not Vietminh , but same people . So it's the same , essentially the same people still , you know taking directions from Ho chi Minh and his people in the north . Um This insurgency begins to become pretty serious . So by 61 Kennedy realizes we have to do more , we can't just have the same 685 people , we have to start pumping in more advisers . And so one of the things he does is he turns to special forces um you know , we know them as a green Berets . Now , did they exist prior existed prior to this ? And in fact their original purpose um really the original purpose was to operate in europe to go behind soviet lines and to create guerilla movements to fight the Soviets . I mean that is so that was that was their original because oftentimes you hear and you read that Kennedy is considered the person that started the green or at least authorized . Well he he certainly was enamored by by the the cut of their jib , so to speak . Um and and and he was he was attracted with the idea of using these high small highly trained forces to fight against the people's war . So he was the one who authorized them to wear the now famous green because their official titles , U . S . Special forces , not the green Berets is the thing that we have . Exactly . But he said yes , I authorize him to wear that special symbol . But that's so he and then their mission . So the green Berets , small units they're employed to and and and and they and their their mission kind of begins to evolve in this period because then going from , you know , parachuting behind soviet lines to build resistance movements in Vietnam principally . What they do is they go up into the mountains . Because if you look at South Vietnam , the coastline tends to be flat where they grow where they grew up , most of the rice , but the interior of these forest covered mountains and there's peoples who live up there who are not ethnically Vietnamese . The overall term for them is montagnards . It's simply a french term for mountaineer , but they are ethnically distinct from Vietnamese and there are dozens of different tribes , different languages . But these montagnards are the people that that the green Berets work with . So they go up into the mountains in small teams . Eight teams . Okay , so we all know mr T . They were the A team . Well , the A team that that's the designator for basically a dozen special forces guys . So they go out and work with these tribesmen in these different villages and begin organizing them to resist the Viet cong because by 61 , you now have this thing called the Ho chi Minh Trail . Right ? North Vietnam is now sending men and supplies down through Laos and cambodia . And then into South Vietnam . And why were they sending them there ? Well this was a way for them to infiltrate South Vietnam All along its interior border because the two nations along the 17th parallel , that's a pretty narrow space . It's called the demilitarized zone . It was never demilitarized , but it's a hard place to get across . But if you do an end run then you can create supply depots all along . They felt safe there because Cambodian Laos are supposed to be neutral and the south Vietnamese and americans can't go get them . So this is why the montagnards and the and the green braids are so important because they live in the mountains . They can keep track of these infiltration routes coming into South Vietnam . So that's that's where this special forest assume a large role . And what about training the South Vietnamese army as well . That is a job for the Regular Army Advisors . So their numbers begin to grow in 61 , 62 , 63 . So You know , by 63 we're talking , it's at least 16,000 american army advisors and and these advisors are doing everything from training South Vietnamese soldiers um , down to the battalion level , I mean , so they are all over the country now and what is the focus of their training . So um it's were mainly facing an insurgency . So this would be counter insurgency training or is it because the threat is evolving um the vietcong have um have become a much more sophisticated forest over the last three or four years , there are still gorillas running around and and part of the training is that literally the black pajama farmer by day sniper by night . And so you , you know , training the South Vietnamese forces To deal with that kind of threat . But now the Viet Cong by 63 are operating as regiments . So you're also having to train them to fight a conventional force . So the things that they're required to train them for become more and more complex and it's not just the infantry , but their training in communications , Engineering , logistics . All the things you can think of , the army by 63 is totally embedded in the South Vietnamese army . And so let's talk about the weapons . Then we're training them . You had mentioned earlier that the french were using a lot of old american equipment , you know , it's now a decade later . What weapons are we training them on the South Vietnamese forces still by and large are using surplus american equipment from World War two , from World War two . Right from World War Two . So they are there , for example , the standard rifle they used is an M one or M two carbine . So if you know the M one Garand of World War two Fame , The M1 Garand is , is just too big and heavy for the average South Vietnamese soldier . So they used the carbine , a shortened lightened version . Um , so that's their standard , they're using 30 caliber machine guns , although if you've seen saving private Ryan is all that kind of weapons , right ? The newer stuff is going to the Americans . Um , but right now we're where we have the M16s yet . Not yet . I mean the special forces begin experimenting with early versions In 62 63 , But the average American advisor is using an M14 , which is basically a semiotic version of a grand um 16 doesn't really come in until 1965 . But what the Americans are providing this , this , this is significant by 62 63 . Um , the american advisors are flying helicopters , so they're bringing in several types of helicopters , including the famous Huey that if you've seen any of the Vietnam war movie , you know it , you know , I mean that's almost the symbol of the Vietnam war is the Huey . And I know in our next podcast we're gonna talk a little bit more about that and the transformation of , of tactics using right using those . But what other type of helicopters were , well , there's there's there's several again on the army side . Um there's this odd thing called uh Shawnee and H 21 It's nicknamed the flying banana . It has two rotors . Is this odd looking aircraft , but it's not , not particularly powerful . But the point here is that by 62 63 american pilots are now flying South Vietnamese troops into battle . So there's a slippery slope . Right ? American advisers is still not direct combatants , they're not supposed to be quote unquote fighting , but now that they're flying them into danger zones , they're getting shot at , right . And so , so again , sort of the more deeply involved you get with the training , our , say armor advisors , you know , we're giving them old m 24 tanks from World War Two . Well , it helps to kind of go out in the field and make sure they're doing it right and that means you get shot . So the danger levels are growing for the american advisors as their numbers arises and as their missions proliferate , Just kind of wondering why we're not getting more involved , but we we soon will . But in 1960 for American 64 groups get attacked , 64 , is a really fateful year in a lot of ways . Um , because you have eight of 63 some important things happen right ? The president of South Vietnam , No , dens EUM , the catholic I mentioned before , um , is assassinated in a military coup by his own people . Um , so there's political instability and that happens too soon . Just about a month or two before Kennedy . Just a little less than three weeks . So three , a little less than three weeks later , President Kennedy is assassinated in november in here in Dallas . And so suddenly the political situation in both countries is kind of thrown into turmoil . Um , the Viet Cong insurgency continues to grow . It's controlled the countryside is expanding the South Vietnamese army for all the support we're giving , it is doing worse . So in 64 , when , when um Lyndon B johnson becomes president , he was the vice president now he's the president . Um He has a real dilemma . On one hand , his passion is what he calls the great society . He has this vision for creating economic development and and and social justice in the United States and that's going to cost a lot of money and it's also gonna require a lot of political support because things like civil rights , those are all things that he wants . But on the other hand , he inherited this mess in Vietnam and he's not about to back away from that because he knows as a democrat what happened to Truman ah when back in the korean war , when Mao Zedong took over communist china , the republicans excoriated the democrats somehow as if it were their fault And it hurts them politically . So Johnson basically is caught between a rock and can't be soft and you can't just simply watching exactly all those factors are still in effect . We have again approaching 20,000 advisors . Now he can't just simply cut and run . Um and so what does he do well for a while , he simply does more of the same , hoping for the best . But this , this , this finally Becomes a crisis in August of 1964 , ah probably a live , you have heard at least heard of the gulf of Tonkin incident . So insure this is what this is , this is the back story . Um , United States again . Still not fighting directly against the communists , but they want to do more . So they authorize the South Vietnamese to do this whole range of covert operations against the north . So one of the things that the South Vietnamese do is they take these speedboats and and race up the coast of North Vietnam and attack North Vietnamese targets . And when that happens , american destroyers cruising off the gulf of Tonkin off the coast have their little electronic ears perked up because when the South Vietnamese hit those targets , the North Vietnamese radar system goes nuts . And so these destroyers is called Desoto patrols , our mapping the North Vietnamese air defense system with the ideas . Maybe if we're gonna have to bomb North Vietnam , we want to know this is what happens to august 1960 for one of these destroyers , the Uss Maddox is cruising off , you know , in the gulf , one of the South Sudanese raids happens . And this time three North Vietnamese patrol boats come out and actually attack the Maddox . Now they don't do any damage to it , but they're but they're exchanging gunfire for a while . And so of course alarm bells go off in , you know , in Washington . Um , the question is , what do we do you know ? What do we do ? And johnson basically says , go back in there . Just keep doing the mission . So , two nights later , the Turner Joy , the Maddox go back and continue the mission and the reports come in . Oh , they've been attacked again . They've been attacked again now this second time immediately . There is suspicion of well , were they actually attacked just like the american planes that went out to look for the patrol boats ? Didn't see anything . And what it turns out is probably um the , the novice sonar operator . But in the turn of Joy was mistaking the sounds of the knuckles and the water of his ship turning fast for enemy torpedoes in the wire . Okay , so but the point is even though johnson thought maybe this didn't happen here . He had , I mean , he had sort of the pretext To take that extra step to bring more pressure . So seven August 1964 , the gulf of Tonkin resolution passed in Congress and this basically gives a blank check his administration to use force against . What does it say ? What is it I mean , essentially , and again , it's a resolution . So it's not a declaration of war , right ? It's not a declaration of war . It authorizes the president to use all necessary measures to um force North Vietnam . I mean , that's sort of the the the the the narrow interpretation was they had attacked our ships in international waters . Right ? So it was a violation of that . So the President now has authority to use all necessary measures to uphold our rights to be in international waters . But really the subtext is use what force you need to get the North Vietnamese to come to hell . And this has a lot of historical impact . Because even years later , you know , we keep hearing , oh , you know , we we don't want to know the gulf of Tonkin resolution , another blank check . So congress is really careful about doing those things . Um , and I guess you can debate whether or not that they are not getting back here . This was this was the blank check . So , Um , I mean , we're getting towards the end of 64 . So , um from there until I would say early 65 , what was the impact of that resolution ? So the immediate impact again , And let's keep in mind that in most of the people in Congress also did not have access all this intel , like , like a lot of them didn't understand different photos , they didn't understand , you know , And also that this is the second incident may not have happened . Okay . But that aside , it was a different era . Again , this was not a declaration of war . And I don't think very few people at the time , I thought it would sort of lead that far . They simply saw it as giving the president authority he needed to , you know , get North Vietnam to to , you know , come to hell . And so the immediate effect was we launched the first airstrikes . Now , it's just a retaliation and then they're over . But the fact is we have now crossed a threshold . We have now engaged in direct war attacks against North Vietnam and that sets the stage for what comes in 65 . Alright . And and we will um attack 1965 in our next podcast . As I close out each episode , I asked for a bit of who a trivia , something about that time frame . That's gonna kind of a little bit of trivia that's going to wow the audience . The audience , did you have a bit of trivia for this timeframe ? Uh there's , I don't know , there's there's a lot of things I think are , you know , cool and interesting about this period . Um let me just Offer this . Um and it may not seem who at the time , but you'll you'll see where I'm going with this . In 1962 , we create the military assistance command Vietnam McVie , that becomes our guiding headquarters during the war . Two years later , General William C . Westmoreland becomes its second commander . So , 64 , you now have General Westmoreland in charge of McVie and he's going to be essentially gonna ring the war for the next four years . So , I , you know , West Berlin is a controversial figure in his own right . We'll be saying more about him . Talk more about that more about him . But but but just keep in mind that , you know , early in the war of 64 , you kind of have all the all the principal figures in place , Johnson and all his advisors , they're gonna be running the war for the next four years . Well , good . Well , great . Thank you so much eric for your discussions and insights today about the early stages of the Vietnam war . And if anyone wants to learn more about the Vietnam war or army history in general , I encourage you to explore our website at history dot army dot mil and you can access all our publications about Vietnam from our website . They are available as free pdf downloads or you can purchase them from the government publishing office and if you want to experience army history every day , then visit our social media sites on facebook twitter and instagram . Please join us every week on this podcast for more in depth discussions about army history . We launched a new episode every monday . So thanks for joining us today on the United States Army history and heritage podcast for the center of Military history . I'm lee Reynolds and until next time we're history . The views expressed in this podcast reflect those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of policies or opinions of the U . S . Army or Department of Defense . For more information about the army's proud history and heritage , go to history dot army dot mil