Why The Mia / Pow Topic Was So Dangerous After The End Of The 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.

The Vietnam War was a nightmare for many soldiers. It re-defined the meaning of war to an entire generation. As the conflict grew it became known around the world that this was a war that could not be won. After this was realized by America the main focus became to "get out" instead of "getting a victory". In the 2002 film We Were Soldiers, directed by Randall Wallace, a true account of the first major battle in Vietnam is given. At the beginning of the film he introduces to us many of the soldiers and their families. This is a very smart technique, because it ensures that the audience not only will care about each one, but also tell them apart. Wallace exemplifies

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

Michael Allen’s book argues that the Vietnam War POW/MIA campaigns aimed at demonstrating the futile loss of human lives in an ill-planned war and assigning responsibility to the authorities. The leaders of such campaigns attempted to highlight their victimization and the memory of defeat in Vietnam in the context of post-Cold War triumphalism. The identification of soldiers’ remains, especially that of the Vietnam War Unknown in response to development in DNA technology and irresistible pressure from POW/MIA activists, symbolizes the country’s shift from the traditional mode of collective war commemoration to the individualization of the memory for war loss. According to Sarah Wagner, the public effort to associate the Vietnam War Unknown with Michael Blassie built a new connection between the justification of war and death with a nation distinguishes itself through its care for the war dead. The country’s response to the demand of the POW/MIA families to search and identify the Vietnam War missing is perceived by Thomas Hawley as a desperate but limitedly effective attempt of the authorities to revive a body politics irreparably weakened by the Vietnam War. He also argued that as the government recovers the remains from Vietnam and assumes the duty of their identification, it endeavors to assert its sovereignty over both

The war in Vietnam was a war against communism that tore apart the US. The United States of America plunged together with its allies and played a tremendous role as far as fight against communism is concerned. A huge number of American soldiers were deployed in Vietnam a practice that coupled with much unpreparedness. The soldiers were not aware what exactly they were up to in Vietnam. Most Americans at the time were very much against the act. It was one of the most deliberating wars America plunged herself into and the only one to have been lost. Most intriguing is the amount of publicity and media buzz created by the film industry. Vietnam War was the topic of many television networks, music and Hollywood. Journalist and veterans and scholar were never left behind and went ahead to produce tones of literature on the legacies and lessons to be learnt from the war (Hochgesang, Lawyer, and Stevenson). The exploitation of the soldiers and rejection of the veterans created just as much interest as the war had created. One such commentary came from George Kennan, who depicted the war as one of the most disastrous mission The United States has ever undertaken (Westheider 155-159).. This essay will establish the effects the war had to the US soldiers.

"I have tried to describe accurately what the dominant event in the life of my generation, the Vietnam War, was like for the men who fought it" (Caputo, p. xxi). In Philip Caputo's own words, he describes the book he tried to write as an accurate portrayal of the events of the Vietnam War, not as he wished it had happened and not in protest of what happened. To this end, Caputo was successful. His book, A Rumor of War, provides a poignant and evocative glance into the lives of real men who fought in a war which no one who was not there could ever truly understand. In going about this, he touches on a variety of recurring themes in his book: the romanticizing of war vs. actual war, the personal aspects of war vs. impersonal aspects of war,

There are only two comprehensive inferences that can be drawn upon when assessing the impact and legacy of the reporting of the Vietnam War on America and its media; the impact was enormous and its legacy unending. More than thirty years have passed since the American military withdrew from Vietnam, and in that time, the war has continued to permeate the cultural, and political landscape of America, impacting all subsequent war

The ‘Tet Offensive’ showed the first signs of the effect the media had in Vietnam, which led to the the question of “why did the audience see what they saw?” Firstly, unlike previous wars journalists had “extraordinary” freedom to cover Vietnam without any direct government intervention. Overtime this noticeably created a problem where the harsh brutal accounts from journalists differed from the positive optimism that United States Officials portrayed. The media was simply the messenger to the American people. But this was the first instance where technological advances had allowed a war to be played out on your own television screen every night of the week. The journalists reacted in the same way as the American public; they too were shocked beyond belief at the constant scenes of burning villages, bloody soldiers and lifeless bodies. These feelings came across in the broadcasts and like the ‘media effects theory’ explains, naturally Americans took up that same belief. This was the first time that the American public showed collective beliefs opposing to the war. To further push public opinion against the war, Hallin suggested that there was a “…declining morale among American troops in the field…”. The thirty-minute nightly

Deploying a propaganda technique that would be honed to perfection during the Gulf War thirty years later, Nixon began to redefine the war. From the spring of 1969 on, the war was going to be first and foremost about the men who were being sent to fight it (and not, mind you, about the people who sent them there). In the first instance, this meant prisoners of war. The administration’s clever campaign to muster public opinion around the POW issue was launched on May 19 at a press conference held by Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. Enthusiastically promoted by the media, the POW issue soon dominate war news to such an extent that the writer Jonathan Schell observed that many people were persuaded that the United States was fighting in Vietnam in order to get its prisoners back.

The Vietnam war was one of the most publicly hated wars in American history. The amount of people killed and the amount of people declared MIA is unfathomable. These troops were never liked, never supported, and to this day are over looked because no one wants to remember the years of the Vietnam war.

Relating to Appy’s claim, as escalation grew after the Tonkin Gulf, America began to wage an unmoral war that was not supported by the Americans and Vietnamese or understood by American soldiers. Agreeing with Appy’s claim, the prime issue of an immoral and unjust war is one that America must realize and understand the full consequences that this has had on the nation if it is to learn any lessons from Vietnam. Originally told that the war was fought to contain communism, bombing campaigns as Operation Rolling Thunder annihilated many villages and the countryside where it was believed that the Viet Cong were stationed. Proven more often than not to be unsuccessful, only to produce the numbers of unidentified Vietnamese bodies and remains that

Shorting after the United States became involve in the Vietnam Conflict, many Americans began to realize the reasons behind the U.S. entering the Vietnam Conflict was based on falsified facts. One such falsification is the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Many America’s begin to form Antiwar organization such as The Vietnam Day Committee and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which severed to education the population on the Vietnam Conflict and the lie that lead to the U.S. involvement in conflict. In the Vietnam Day Committee’s pamphlet, I found it disturbing and unjustified that they would make a comment such as, “A growing number of GIs have already refused to fight in Vietnam and have been court-martialed. They have shown great courage.” The last

Up until the 1950s and 60s, investigative journalism did not exist, or at least not pertaining to issues in which the government was involved; what the government said was untouchable. After the publication of the Pentagon Papers in The New York Times, in March of 1971, the American people suddenly had access to information that confirmed that the United States had taken an active role in building up the conflict in Vietnam. Simply put, “the people who were aware of how we had stumbled into Vietnam were the ones who wanted to get us out” (Heller, “Interview with” 1975), so this shocking revelation paired with the continued involvement of the United States in Vietnam added insult to injury for citizens whose support for the war was already dwindling. Yossarian’s bold statement that “the enemy...is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on” (Heller, Catch-22 124), resonated with an angered and betrayed American public. Yossarian represents “a rallying cry for a generation traumatized by the Vietnam War” (Muhlestein 2009) because he does not walk through life blindly. He asks the questions that everyone ignores, and he expects a proper answer, a characteristic which was consistent with the “spirit of revolt” (Heller, “Checking In” 1981) Heller felt in the political

public opinions against the U.S. war efforts in Vietnam.” (Valentine, 2013) Overall, the treatment of the POW’s who were captured was a subject of controversy.

During the war, American journalism reporters were believed to only give facts which were only relevant and official. According to Daniel Miller(2004) this believe stirred doomed objectivity giving way to official influence which hindered success of Kennedy’s policies in Vietnam. As picture about the war appeared in the media criticizing the manner in which the war was being carried out in South Vietnamese, people become pessimistic about the success of the Saigon government. While other picture appearing in the media supported the Americans who had advised the Saigon Government