Vietnam War Photo Analysis

The Vietnam War that commenced on November 1, 1955, and ended on April 30, 1975, took the soldiers through a devastating experience. Many lost their lives while others maimed as the war unfolded into its full magnitude. The book Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bernard Edelman presents a series of letters written by the soldiers to their loved ones and families narrating the ordeals and experiences in the Warfield. In the book, Edelman presents the narrations of over 200 letters reflecting the soldiers’ experiences on the battlefield. While the letters were written many decades ago, they hold great significance as they can mirror the periods and the contexts within which they were sent. This paper takes into account five letters from different timelines and analyzes them against the events that occurred in those periods vis a vis their significance. The conclusion will also have a personal opinion and observation regarding the book and its impacts.

Everyday men and women die in the most brutal way possible away from their family either killed from gun shots or landmines and they do come back. But in caskets, as images like these emphasize the destruction of war and these snaps just show the side effects of humankind's worse anger being shown. In the Article “The Stranger in the Photo Is Me”, Donald M. Murray expresses how harsh it really was in the war and how it changed himself forever and not in a good way. Not to mention, that he describes the way he felt ready to go to war, maybe even excited, but he wishes that horror on no one “I would not wish for a child or grandchild of mine to undergo the blood test of war” as the sacrifice these men and women go through is undeniably tremendous

The public was on board the war train for the first few years of the war, until they found out what it was actually like in Vietnam. Public view of the war immediately changed negatively. When the news reached the soldiers in Vietnam, reactions were mixed. While they could understand why the people didn't like the prospect of war, they were still killing-even when they didn't want to-for their country. Some soldiers didn't know how to respond. One solder wrote to his mother and told her that for one second he felt as if he was on vacation because it was so beautiful in Vietnam. Another one told his mom “not to worry, there is nothing I can't handle”. While the soldiers could handle the physical horrors happening to them, it was the mental stuff that was breaking them down.

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

This essay has considered to what extent the media’s coverage of Vietnam was to blame for the United States losing the war. Examining in particular the ‘Tet

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

The POW issue created new visions of the war for Americans. As H. Bruce Franklin (1992, 54) wrote in M.I.A, or Mythmaking in America, “The actual photographs and TV footage of massacred villagers, napalmed children, Vietnamese prisoners being tortured and murdered, wounded GIs screaming in agony, and body bags being loaded by the dozen for

People’s opinion on the war was greatly influenced by the media. During the Vietnam War, the horrors that were happening on the battlefield were shown to Americans in their living rooms. There was no censorship meaning Americans back home saw dead bodies, Vietnamese children being shot and villages being burnt, all done by American Soldiers. Watching children, babies and old people being killed caused people to label soldiers as murderers and baby killers. Before Vietnam, soldiers had always been shown in a heroic way. But now, reporters would show only parts of a story, the parts that made soldiers look bad. In the Vietnam War, reporters could literally follow soldiers onto the battle fields and show it on television. Also, most photographers were interested in showing the bad aspects of the war such as the remaining destroyed village of Vietnamese or the suffering of soldiers. The media built stereotypes of soldiers at war as part of anti- war protests so photographers would show the parts that benefited anti-war protests and captured only half the story in his photograph. For

Those anti-war and pro-war alike utilized their craft to maintain their views were correct, while others used art to aid in the understanding of the public of what was truly happening in Vietnam. Art, like photography, can still be used to show the truest image of war to those who are incapable of seeing it themselves as it disproves any misinformation and it amends any lack of information the general public may have. Additionally, through the manipulation of emotions, specifically those which evoke empathy or guilt, art is eternally capable of swaying an audience’s views and opinions on war. Art is a crucial device of the social battlefield of

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.

As more and more troops were being sent to Vietnam, and the casualties began to rise, people began to question the government’s involvement. “Even military troops came to mistrust their government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s claims that the war was being won”.(Vietnam War) The Vietnam war was the first war to be broadcast on television. This meant that for the first time the American people were able to see the war instead of just hearing about it on the radio. They were able to see firsthand the soldier’s faces, see the reality of where they were fighting and to see the

After World War two had ended and the United States had entered the Vietnam War, the theme of mortality became less shocking to the population than in the years prior. With the acceptance of such things, Warhol decided to create a series of brutal artwork that would exemplify the understanding of life and death. “His series of death and disaster included paintings of electric chairs, suicides, and car crashes” (Wrbican). Warhol wanted the public to see what really goes on in society when people make destructive decisions. “Warhol used powerful, hard-hitting picture that summed up the way society was becoming so used to images of horror that they were no longer shocked by

This essay will be a discussion of a famous photograph from the Vietnam War by a French photographer, Marc Riboud. The photograph was captured in 1967 and it sends out a powerful message about war. The intention of the photo was to turn the public’s opinion against war. In this photograph, a young woman known as Jan Rose Kasmir comes face to face with guards outside the Pentagon and she is marching towards them in protest against war. Riboud saw this young innocent woman confront the guards and he slowly crept up to the side of her and took the picture with her not knowing. Many years later, Jose Rose Kasmir saw the picture and began to cry as it took her back to the overwhelming sadness of the war. I will discuss the technical aspects of the image and look at the various readings that can be seen. I will also discuss my own reflection of the photograph and the reasons why I chose to analyse it.

Taken during a time when war ravaged the nation of Vietnam, this photograph provides a minute glimpse into this trying time. This war claimed the lives of over fifty-eight thousand American soldier and