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Media In Vietnam War

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With the spread of communism, Vietnam became divided within the country after obtaining their independence from France. The country started a civil war in 1957, between the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). South Vietnam was comprised of individuals who opposed communism; North Vietnam was built by communists under Ho Chi Min’s rule. At the point of the Gulf of Tonkin, the United States began intervening with the battles, supporting the Republic of Vietnam and sending more than 500,000 U.S. military personnels to Vietnam. In Vietnam, the Vietnam War is referred to as the “American War” because of the American involvement during the war. During the Vietnam War, the media played a …show more content…

The development of portable recording technology made it possible for the media to follow the war more closely and share it more vividly with the public. Through developments of “new record[ing] technologies such as video camera and audio recorders,” the media had the ability to spread coverage of the Vietnam War at an unprecedented rate with the addition of types of graphic resources that were never seen before. Therefore, instead of relying on the government to gain facts, people started to rely on the media, and depending on how the war was displayed, the opinions on the Vietnam War of every individual changed. In fact, with the widespread television, it was problematic for the government to reach out and connect with the public. With the impact the media had on the public through the spread of images and videos that showed what war really looked like, it was difficult for the government to appeal the idea of continuing to fight in Vietnam to the …show more content…

This made many feel betrayed by the country and lose confidence in the credibility of the government. One case of military cover-up followed by the media was the ambush of the Americans during the Battle of Ong Thanh. On October 17, the Americans ambushed the Viet Cong and suffered a loss. However, Michael Arias, a soldier who survived the event, was told by “superiors not to call what happened an ambush when interviewed,” and had to lie during the CBS interview. Because many soldiers knew the truth about what had happened during the battle, cynicism started to grow. The surviving soldiers saw that the government fabricated the truth, and called the ambush a victory that was not an ambush. This resulted in many starting to question the information provided by the government. The media’s ability to interact directly with the soldiers made the individuals who knew the truth become a cynic of the government, and made the public-government relationship worse. Because the media could interact directly with the soldiers, they were able to take home information about individuals who knew the truth and had been silenced by the military. Media reports about such situations led the public to feel much more cynical of the military and the government, thus worsening the public-government

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There was a variety of ways that American society realized that war was not a fight that the soldiers should not have been there in the first place. Because of the new modern-age televisions, many people and families could see soldiers interviewed in the middle of battle and even killed. The Tet Offensive was one of the main turning points in the war because of the media coverage, because there were traumatic images being shown all across the country, which made the people realize that they should not have been part of this war by showing that more U.S. soldiers were being killed than we could replace. There were many news reporters that were in the jungles of enemy territory (“Media”). These men were not supposed to record the battles themselves, just the “body counts” of how many enemies the troops had killed that day.

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The story covered many different topics ranging from the Women’s Rights Movement to the Manson Murders. The book was intended for people who are interested in the impacts the 1960s had on the United States, and people interested in learning more about how much changed in the 1960s from a first-person perspective. The point of this book is to examine American society in the 1960s and to highlight the role the media played in impacting events like Vietnam and the Women’s Rights Movement. This book teaches us about how impactful the 1960s were on American

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With the media increasing its role in informing the American public about the war in detail, along with graphic images, war atrocities, such as the My Lai Massacre, became more difficult to cover up, which stirred even more violent public outcry. Not long after the media broadcasted the massacre, the release of the “Pentagon Papers” diminished what little trust was left of the government. The My Lai Massacre and the Pentagon Papers were two of the greatest contributors to the U.S. government credibility gap because the massacre exposed the horrors of an already controversial war and how far the government would conspire to conceal the truth, and the Pentagon Papers exposed numerous other government cover ups. The My Lai Massacre contributed to the widening credibility gap and mistrust of the U.S. government because it revealed the government’s readiness to cover up atrocities that would add to the criticism of the government’s actions.

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The 1960’s and early 1970’s was a period when America was involved in many conflicts overseas, including the Vietnam War. This began a time when media spread quickly as well as influenced the public heavily and wars were first televised. These conflicts ultimately caused citizens to protest and question the motives of the federal government. A large number of these protestors were students who sought to combat problems through various tactics to get authority figures to remedy the problems they identified. Student protestors sought to combat many immediate and long-term problems involving this time period and the Vietnam War.

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According to The University of Virginia’s document, “The 6:00 Follies: Hegemony, Television News, and the War of Attrition”: “Vietnam... is often is

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1874 Words | 8 Pages

At the beginning, it was great propaganda to go fight to make sure communism from taking over and preventing another red scare. Then every big news channel and big tv shows started to show the war on live television so the people could feel involved and know what’s going on. Eventually once the war took a sharp right turn and got gruesome the media lost focus on the other things happening and focused more on the casualties of both Americans and Vietnamese. Once all of that got aired on tv the war became unpopular and the people didn’t want to see it anymore, they wanted peace and the fighting to stop in return caused the protests and everybody coming together. This in return caused the withdraw of American troops and the decrease in aid to south Vietnam.

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One of the most controversial wars in history and a turning point in American foreign policy, the emotions and events surrounding the Vietnam War capture the essence of the era. The rise of rebellious youth culture and anti-war and anti-draft movements were key social aspects of American life leading up to and during the fighting. (Doc 2, 3) On the political side, Congress aimed to control the Chief-Executive with legislation such as the War Powers Act of 1973, requiring the president to remove all unreported troops in Vietnam and report any further sent. (Doc 7) To say the country was divided would be a massive understatement.

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O'Brien shows us that "In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It's a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness." (pg. 71).

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723 Words | 3 Pages

On March 8th, 1965 the United States officially entered the Vietnam War. A war that was supposed to be fought between the North and South side of Vietnam. The war lasted between 1955 to 1975, with over 58 thousand US soldiers being killed, 2 Million Vietnam civilians being murdered and over a million Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers also dying. The Vietnam War heightened social and political tension in the United States from 1964-1975.

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People felt that their belief and faith were eroded. Especially, the sensational and brutal images from the battlefield in the Tet Offensive, after being widely broadcast, had awoken the public. They understood that their soldiers were fighting in a civil war and it would not gain any benefits. The war itself contained an unresolved conflict going beyond the relationship between media

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1060 Words | 5 Pages

As the war raged on in Vietnam, controversy grew in America. In the years onward from 1950, technology advanced and enabled everyday citizens to be able to own, operate, and observe nationwide news (Kratz 1). Described as “graphic and upsetting,” photos and videos captured on the battlefield were displayed on public news (“American” 1). The government censored all news from the press, and anything the military did not want disclosed to the public was hidden (Kratz 2). As the trial began many Americans began to chant the iconic phrase, “The whole world is watching” (McDowell 2).

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1609 Words | 7 Pages

A surprise attack led by communist troops on South Vietnam took place that day. The result was the death of over 500 American troops per week and psychological damage to the American morale. Despite American victory to drive out North Vietnamese troops out of South Vietnamese cities, the public began to question how such an attack became possible if U.S. government claims were true. Questions also arised about why the United States had to result to bombing the cities they claimed to be saving during this attack. The people were in disbelief the troops had to resort to such extremes when the government expressed military dominance throughout the war.

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1524 Words | 7 Pages

The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

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1371 Words | 6 Pages

The journalists provided documents and pictures to show Americans what was really going on over there. I personally think the Vietnam War ended because it was no longer having the support at home from Americans because of what they saw on the news. The Vietnam War was not censored back then compared to those recently. The government manipulates journalist’s report about the war oversees, so that they can maintain support from the citizens back home and continue the war. For instance, there was tension between the United States military and the media during the Iraqi War.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Secondly, politics rendered society to lose faith in the government. The war was televised; however, the government failed to inform the American people about multiple things such as the My Lai massacre and the Pentagon Papers. These papers were kept secret by the government and caused trust to be lost by the American people. Last but not least, the media had one of the biggest negative impacts on the American people during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the first war to be televised and revealed what was truly happening in Vietnam.

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