Today's guest is hockey-playing Québécois and Vietnam historian, Pierre Asselin! He's come a long way from not wanting to go to college to now the Dwight E. Stanford Chair in American Foreign Relations and interim Director of the Center for War and Society at San Diego State University. Born and raised in Quebec City, Pierre had an inspirational professor at Glendon College who encouraged him to learn Vietnamese through a program that took Pierre to Hawaii, where, and he never imagined it, he would later return to earn his PhD at the University of Hawaii and teach at Pacific University for over twenty years. Add to that annual visits to Vietnam for now over thirty years! Pierre is author of several works, including A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement (UNC Press), Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War (California), and the highly recommended Vietnam's American War: A History (Cambridge). Pierre wears it on his sleeve - and he doesn't hold back in this episode.

Join us for a roller-coaster chat as we talk hockey, Quebec, Hawaii, life-changing teachers, staying true to yourself and earning respect in a sometimes pretentious business, paying it forward, Rush, KFC, working in Vietnamese archives, Rambo, and much more!

Rec.: 03/18/2026