To What Extent The American News Media Affected The Support And Result Of The Vietnam War

This essay will discuss to what degree the media can be blamed for the United States’ loss in the Vietnam conflict ending 1975. It will be based predominantly on key written resources on the subject, but it will also contain - by means of an interview - certain first-hand observations from a Vietnam War veteran.

During the Vietnam War, Americans were greatly influenced by the extensive media coverage of the war. Before the 1960’s and the intensification of the war, public news coverage of military action was constrained heavily by the government and was directed by Government policy. The Vietnam War uniquely altered the perception of war in the eyes of American citizens by bringing the war into their homes. The Vietnam War was the first U.S uncensored war resulting in the release of graphic images and unaltered accounts of horrific events that helped to change public opinion of the war like nothing it had ever been. This depiction by the media led to a separation between the United States government and the press; much of what was reported flouted

Vietnam was an entirely new type of war for the United States. It still remains morally and historically problematic in today’s society. The Vietnam War had a tremendous impact on American society and culture, primarily because it was the first war to be televised. The American press played a significant

During the early years of Vietnam War the public support was high. The "fight against communist" was grounds for many public rallies to encourage and support the effort. Despite the high approval rating the US government still released crucial propaganda that displayed communist as the evil of the world. It wasn't until Nixon invaded Cambodia that many protests occurred, mostly by democratic college students that led to the US government censoring American media. During hostile times in the Vietnam War the US government fell to censoring the media in order to lower the amount of opposing riots against the government. During an age of independent journalism, however, the government was not showing the same

The Vietnam War was the first televised war. This allowed news stations to bring the battles right to the television screen in someone’s home. The Vietnamese would use the American media to express their thoughts to the Americans. Americans were also able to see the brutal combat that was happening and get a first-hand experience of the war. Reporters had the ability to skew Americans’ views of the war by the way they reported. Since the Vietnam War was televised many people were influenced by the images they saw on their home television and caused them to take action.

what ways did various groups use the news to advance their causes? Did television news dictate America’s foreign and domestic policy? Ultimately, was the power of the television news a positive or a negative force in American history? 6) Why did the American nation become embroiled in Viet Nam? Was it following the same impulse that led the United States into the forefront in Korea, or was it something different? Did we commit to the engagement with certainty, or was it something that we backed into reluctantly, but had no real choice? 7) Many of the “Great Society” programs of LBJ are still part of the American fabric today. Discuss four programs from the “Great Society” that still benefit America today. How “progressive” were these programs? Were they radical in their nature, or long overdue? 8) FDR had hoped that the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union would continue in the postwar world. Yet the two nations soon became locked in a global conflict

By 1968, more than half of the American people relied on television as their principal source of news. What they saw informed, engrossed, and unsettled them. CBS Evening News anchor Harry Reasoner referred to it as “horrors and failures.” The Vietnam War dominated the network newscast as it never had before. Suddenly the war was everywhere. The impact on the American public would indeed be great. It set off a critical reaction to the war within the American media and gave greater credence to arguments against the war that a vocal protest movement had been voicing for some time. The media coverage of the Tet Offensive had a great influence on the eventual outcome of the fighting and its aftermath. Clarence Wyatt, author of Paper

People believe that the media played a large role in the U.S. defeat. They claim that the media’s inclination toward negative reporting helped to eliminate support for the war in the United States. However, many experts who have studied the role of the media have concluded that prior to 1968 most reporting was actually supportive of the U.S. effort in Vietnam. An assessment made by Walter Cronkite, an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years, in 1968 said that the Vietnam conflict was mired in stalemate. He basically said that the U.S. had lost the war; the negative tone of reporting may have reflected rather than created similar feelings among the American public.

In january, 1968 the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam war was launched. The Tet Offensive was a carefully planned military campaign composed of surprise attacks on the republic of Vietnam by the communist parties of North and South Vietnam during the vietnamese holiday, Tet. The Tet offensive, militarily was a massive defeat for the communist parties of Vietnam, however it led to mass disillusionment within the U.S., diminishing public support for the war, inevitably forcing a withdrawal of U.S. troops, therefore it was also a political triumph for the communist. Thus the question of this investigation is therefore: to what extent did the Tet Offensive affect America’s societal opinion on the involvement of the Vietnam war?

The Vietnam War began in 1954 and came to an end in 1975. It was a conflict that set in opposition the communist regime of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong

On February 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite made a special CBS news report regarding America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Walter Cronkite was a well trusted and convincing man and was even considered at times as one of the most trusted men in America. He used his words in his “We are Mired in Stalemate” broadcast in a way that changed America’s perception of the Vietnam War. The people of America, the audience of this broadcast, believed every word Cronkite said. They took his ability to convince so seriously even to the point that President Johnson believed that if he had lost the approval of Cronkite, he had lost the entire country’s support. Walter Cronkite was talking to the nation of America in his “We are Mired in Stalemate” broadcast, and they took every word he said into serious consideration. This news broadcast was crucial at the time, and can be argued as one of the most influential decision makers for the people’s opinion of ending the U.S.

The investigation assesses the media coverage of the Tet Offensive and its impact on American policy concerning the Vietnam War from 1968 until 1969. The investigation evaluates the contrast between media broadcasts and government reports of the war, the effect of the media on the American public, and the effect of American public opinion on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s course of action. Two of the sources, Vietnam and America: A Documented History by Marvin E. Gettleman, Jane Franklin, Marilyn Young, and H. Bruce Franklin, and The “Uncensored War”: The Media and Vietnam by Daniel C. Hallin are examined.

The Vietnam War began in the year 1954, after the ascension to power of Ho Chi Minh, who was a communist leader in North Vietnam. The leader was spreading communism, and because the United States wanted to stop the spread, it sent military troops to aid South Vietnamese to stop this vice. The war saw about 3million people die with the inclusion of 58,000 American soldiers. About 150,000 people were wounded during the war. In 1975, South Vietnamese government surrendered the war after the communist forces forced them to surrender. Vietnam unified communism and became a Socialist Republic. Although decades have passed since the occurrence of the Vietnam war, the American culture, which was partly born as a result of this war, is celebrated

war the enemy would be in uniform and it was clear who to kill who not

Vietnam was a country divided into two by communism in the North and capitalism in the South. The Vietnam War, fought between the years 1959 and 1975, was, in essence, a struggle by nationalists in the north to unify the nation under a communist government. This was a long standing conflict between the two sides that had been occurring for years. It wasn’t until 1959 when the USA, stepped in, on the side of southern Vietnamese, to stop the spread of communism. It was a war that did not capture the hearts and minds of the American people as it was viewed as a war that the US army couldn’t win and so the government lost the peoples support for the war. This ultimately led to the withdrawal of the US army from Vietnam. Some people, like