Vietnam War Outcome Influenced by the Media

Term 3 Paper The Media and Vietnam struggle The Vietnam War was a fight of mass destruction, leaving Vietnam to become bitterly dissever and claiming the many lives of Vietnamese civilians as wellspring as the Statesn spends. Out of completely the state of wars in American history, the Vietnam War was the first war to be to the highest degreely televised and covered by the media. It came to be known as the first Television War. Journalists began to pour into Vietnam from all over the nation, to cover the lives of the American Soldiers as well as Vietnamese civilians.As television brought horr turn backous images of the war into American living rooms, the perception of an American solider as a hero slowly became the image of the American enemy. Thus, the media is a major factor that resulted to the Vietnamization of the conflict, following the end of the war during the fall of Saigon. Television was the main quotation of news for the American public, and perhaps the most p lay on the public opinion of the war. A think over showed that In 1950, only nine percent of homes possess a television. By 1966, this rose to ninety-three percent. (McLaughlin). As television popularity rose, Americans began to depend of television as an right source of how they understood the war. In addition, no security review was established to limit the amount of info beingness put out to the American public. In the website bind, Vietnam A criminalize War, John a. Cloud states the fact that thither was no soldiers censorship, there was still censorship among the judicature (Cloud). Due to lack of censorship, journalists could follow the military into combat and report their observations without formal censorship.Therefore, journalists that experienced the risky combat were able to present the public with more than graphic images that the nation has ever seen. One of the most influential journalists was Walter Cronkite, Cronkite turned against the war and cal guide for peace negotiations. (NPR). As an anchor for CBS Evening News, Cronkite make his education against the war. This workd all other journalists to follow his lead. As a result, journalists reported the actions of the soldiers negatively. Gradually, Support for the war began to decrease by the fall of 1967.One of the most turning events of the Vietnam War was the Tet slimy in 1968. During the Tet Offensive, the media presented images of soldiers sweeping through over one-hundred Confederate Vietnamese cities. After the televised coverage of the Battle of Tet, legal age Americans withdrew their support for the war. In the book Eyewitness Vietnam War, full admiral Grant Sharp argued the reality of the 1968 Tet Offensive was that capital of Vietnam had taken a big gamble and at sea on the battlefield, but they won a solid physiological victory in the United States. (Murray 18).This proves that, the media was creating anomalous claims to provoke the populate into pushing the g overnment to train the war. The media also portrayed the assault as a defeat for the United States, the media, not the military confirm the growing perception that the U. S was unable to with the war. (McLaughlin). With this advantage, the northbound Viet Cong was using the media to win the sympathy of the American public, so that they would turn against their government. The anti-war movement by 1965 influenced many Americans to counterbalance their governments intimacy in the war.Thus, afterwards the Tet offensive, the number of protesters skyrocketed (Langer 235). One example is the Kent State massacre, which light-emitting diode to the death of four students. There was a square national response to the shooting, such as the conclusion of schools thought the United States due to student strikes. However, the most damaging event for a U. S soldiers reputation was the massacre of My Lai, images of dead children, women, and families fill up newspapers and television. (M urray 23). When the incident became public, it promoted the widespread outrage thought the world.The American solider was now portrayed as monstrous killers with no qualms slightly killing Vietnamese civilians. (Cloud). Critics of the war created accusations towards the soldiers such as drug use, rape, and barbaric acts. This led the people to marvel the purpose of Americas affair of the war. The media was also used to expose government information regarding the Vietnam War. There was a conspiracy that, an alleged attack on the U. S spy ship (USS Maddox) was by design created to become the pretext for war in Vietnam. also known as the Gulf of Tonkin, the event apt(p) congress permission to invade Vietnam.American journalist, Nigel Sheehan exposed the documents that told the rightfulness about the start of the war. As a newsmanforThe New York Times,in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classifiedPentagon PapersfromDaniel Ellsberg. (Shah). Sheehan collaborated with Ellsberg (a forme r(prenominal) pentagon staff) to publish the series of clauses that contained the history of the U. S intricacy in the war. The official secret history of the war would reveal that administration officials had drafted the gulf of Tonkin block themselves, deuce months before the attack of Maddox. (Shah).This caused the people to become outraged, censuring the government for the start of the war instead of the Viet Cong. An article from Media measuring stick in 1994, explains that the heavy reliance on U. S government officials as sources of information and reluctance to question official statements on national security issues, led to a lot of inaccurate media reporting (Langer 256). more stories about atrocities of the war were witnessed, but were initially never reported. Even if atrocities were reported, they were perceived as a disaster because the government did not want to take the blame.For example, when the My Lai Massacre was reported on the Newsweek the banner headline w as An American Tragedy (Murray). This caused sympathy for the invader and deflected from the truth about the atrocities. Above all, the atrocities were in fact, a Vietnamese tragedy. With the influence of media, the Americans failed to have public support for the war to protract on. Moreover, tensions between the news media and the Nixon administration only change magnitude as the war dragged on. Finally, Nixon was pressured to find a resolution to end the war.As a result, on November 3, 1969, PresidentRichard M. Nixonmade a televised speech laying out his policy toward Vietnam, promising to continue to support the South Vietnamese government and held out a plan for the insularity of American combat troops. (Wyatt). With this he created Vietnamization to slowly read troops out of Vietnam, along with plans to end the war. In brief, the media was a major factor that motivated the American public to pressure the government to stop involvement of the war. As a result, the media is one of the factors that resulted in Americas cost of the war.Works cited Cloud, John A. Vietnam A Censored War. Thecrimson. com. The Harvard Crimson, 9 Mar. 1991. Web. Considered, All Things. Cronkite on Vietnam War NPR. NPR interior(a) Public Radio News & Analysis, World, US, harmony & arts NPR. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. . Langer, Howard. The Vietnam War An cyclopedia of Quotations / Howard J. Langer. Westport, CT Greenwood, 2005.Print. McLaughlin, Erin. The Media and the Vietnam War. The Warbirds assembly AVG Flying Tigers, Brewster Buffaloes, Flying Wings, japan at War, Vietnam, and early(a) Military History Stuff. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. http//www. warbirdforum. com/media. htm. Murray, Stuart. Eyewitness Vietnam War. NY DK Pub. , 2005. Print. Shah, Anup. Media, Propaganda and Vietnam planetary Issues. Global Issues Social, Political, Economic and environmental Issues That Affect Us All Global Issues. 24 Oct. 2003. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. http//www. globalissues. rg/article/402/ media-propaganda-and-vietnam. Cloud, John A. Vietnam A Censored War. Thecrimson. com. The Harvard Crimson, 9 Mar. 1991. Web. http//www. thecrimson. com/article/1991/3/9/vietnam-a-censored-war-pbybou-cant/ Considered, All Things. Cronkite on Vietnam War NPR. NPR National Public Radio News Analysis, World, US, Music Arts NPR. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. http//www. npr. org/templates/story/story. php? storyId=1147965. Langer, Howard. The Vietnam War An Encyclopedia of Quotations / Howard J. Langer.Westport, CT Greenwood, 2005. Print. McLaughlin, Erin. The Media and the Vietnam War. The Warbirds Forum AVG Flying Tigers, Brewster Buffaloes, Flying Wings, Japan at War, Vietnam, and Other Military History Stuff. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. . Murray, Stuart. Eyewitness Vietnam War. NY DK Pub. , 2005. Print. Shah, Anup. Media, Propaganda and Vietnam Global Issues. Global Issues Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All Global Issues. 24 Oct. 2003. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.