The Impact of Media Coverage of the Tet Offensive on American Policy

2148 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: America vietnam war role of the media

How did media coverage of the Tet Offensive impact American policy concerning the Vietnam War?

Part A: Plan of Investigation

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.

Part B: Summary of Evidence:

The Vietnam War was the first war that entered the living rooms of Americans. From 1965 until 1968, eighty-six percent of the CBS and NBC nightly news programs covered the Vietnam War. This coverage was generally supportive of United States involvement as the media portrayed the conflict as “good guys fighting Communism,” fitting into the ongoing story of the Cold War. The “Five O’clock Follies,” daily press briefings in Saigon, gave a strong sense of progress and American bravery. During this time period, the number of troops stationed in Vietnam steadily increased without major concern, but when the number of Americans killed in action rose from a monthly average of 172 during 1965 to 770 in l967, criticism of the Johnson administration grew.

Therefore, in November 1967, the Administration launched a “public relations” campaign designed to guide the press to show “light at the end of the tunnel” in Vietnam. General William Westmoreland, commander of...

... middle of paper ...

...Vietnam War and the Vietnam Veteran.” The Warbird’s Forum. Daniel Ford, July 2008. Web. 18 May 2011. .

Morelock, Jerry. “Media Coverage Turns Tet into a Defeat.” History and the Headlines. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 18 May 2011. .

Roleff, Tamara L. The Vietnam War. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2002. Print.

Simon, Dennis M. “The War in Vietnam, 1965-1968.” The War in Vietnam. N.p., Aug. 2002. Web. 18 May 2011. .

Willbanks, James K. The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print.

Wyatt, Clarence R. Paper Soldiers The American Press and the Vietnam War. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Book Review of William Prochnau's, Once upon a Distant War

    466 Words  | 1 Pages

    Beginning in the early 1960's American journalists began taking a hard look at America's involvement in South Vietnam. This inevitably led to a conflict with the American and South Vietnamese governments, some fellow journalists, and their parent news organizations. This was the last hurrah of print journalism, as television began to grow in stature. William Prochnau's, Once Upon A Distant War, carefully details the struggles of these hardy journalists, led by David Halberstram, Malcolm Browne, and Neil Sheehan. The book contains stories, told in layers, chronicling America's growing involvement in South Vietnam from 1961 through 1963.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Philip Caputo's A Rumor Of War

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War has become a focal point of the Sixties. Known as the first televised war, American citizens quickly became consumed with every aspect of the war. In a sense, they could not simply “turn off” the war. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo is a firsthand account of this horrific war that tore our nation apart. Throughout this autobiography, there were several sections that grabbed my attention. I found Caputo’s use of stark comparisons and vivid imagery, particularly captivating in that, those scenes forced me to reflect on my own feelings about the war. These scenes also caused me to look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a soldier, which is not a perspective I had previously considered. In particular, Caputo’s account of

    Read More

  • Exposing the Truth in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

    2203 Words  | 5 Pages

    Fussell, Paul. "Vietnam." The Bloody Game: An Anthology of  Modern War. Ed. Paul Fussell. London: Scribners, 1991. 651-6.

    Read More

  • The Battle of Long Tan

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War was a vicious conflict predominately between the United States and Australia against The Viet Cong and The North Vietnamese. Initially the public supported the war, however the American president of the time, Lyndon B. Johnson, exaggerated how easy and worldwide the war was to attract further support. When he called for “more flags” to be represented in South Vietnam only the Philippines, the Republic of South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand indicated a willingness to contribute some form of military aid. By doing this “it enabled Johnson to portray the developing war as international to show it must be dealt with and gain support,” (Hastings, 2003). The outcome of the Vietnam War was ensured because the governments of the United States and Australia could not maintain their publics’ support due to the popular culture of the time. This was because much of the war was shown on television or other popular culture, so events like the Battle of Long Tan could be seen by families and people of all ages in their living rooms; this was the first time they could see how bad a war can actually be.

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1558 Words  | 4 Pages

    Vietnam was a highly debated war among citizens of the United States. This war was like no other with regards to how it affected people on the home front. In past war’s, the population of the United States mainly supported the war and admired soldiers for their courage. During the Vietnam War, citizens of the U.S. had a contradictory view than in the past. This dilemma of not having the support of the people originates from the culture and the time period.

    Read More

  • Public Opposition and its Influence on War Decisions

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    1968, the year of the Tet Offensive, was the peak of US involvement in the war. The Tet Offensive was a series of battles between the Communist and Anti-Communist forces in South Vietnam. Although it was a victory for the United States, public support decreased due to the number of casualties and struggle to win the offensive. President Johnson, in his comments on the Tet Offensive, bashed the public opinion (doc 4). He pointed out that in terms of numbers, the US and South Vietnamese had a huge victory. His point of view was simply from a statistical standpoint. But the public saw that many Vietnamese civilians were harmed and affected by the war. The Tet Offensive was the beginning of the decline of public support for the war, as well as decline in US involvement in the war due to the public opinion. In addition, President Johnson was losing support because of his stubborn foreign policy outlook. Robert Kennedy, the Senator of New York, was contemplating a presidential run to oppose the President 's Vietnam policy. In addition, Johnson was losing democratic primaries to Senator Eugene McCarthy, who also opposed Johnson’s Vietnam policy. The public support for McCarthy showed that the American people were now against participation in the Vietnam War. Soon after the Tet Offensive, President Johnson announced a slow decrease in bombings of North Vietnam, started to

    Read More

  • Why Is The Tet Offensive So Important In The Vietnam War

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the Tet Offensive, more protests occurred demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. The protestors used it as fuel and began expanding their ideas to the rest of the United States. Even Johnson’s opposing party saw it as his lack of leadership with the army. The media was able to shift the opinions of the people one way or another. With the new information from the Tet Offensive, most people switched to the side of the anti-war

    Read More

  • Essay On Us Involvement In The Vietnam War

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Roark, James L. "Vietnam and the Limits of Power 1961-1975." The American Promise: A History of the United States. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 1,062- 1,100. Print.

    Read More

  • The Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War

    2385 Words  | 5 Pages

    the change in moral of the volunteers and the civilians under pressure after the Tet

    Read More

  • The Effect of Mass Media on Americans during the Vietnam War

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Effect of Mass Media on Americans during the Vietnam War When the war initially began, Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State, pointed out that: "This was the first struggle fought on television in everybody's living room every day... whether ordinary people can sustain a war effort under that kind of daily hammering is a very large question. " The us administration, unlike most governments at war, made no official attempt to censure the reporting in the Vietnam war. Every night on the colour television people not only in America but across the planet saw pictures of dead and wounded marines. Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam."

    Read More

  • Media Coverage In Vietnam War Essay

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Government had a hard time keeping up with censoring what any American could potentially see when they tuned into the evening news. With the fast-paced increase in television sets in American homes, came a lack of adequate government control. The multitude of graphic images and videos from Vietnam that were being broadcasted in the living rooms of so many families is what made the Vietnam war the “Living-Room War.” Hundreds of thousands of NBC viewers watched Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shoot his captive in a Saigon street. It was violence like this that heavily impacted America’s feelings toward the war. “Vietnam was a journalistic milestone: according to Daniel C. Hallin … it was the first war in which reporters were routinely accredited to accompany military forces, yet not subject to censorship”(Blumenthal Web). This lack of censorship is what caused America to see the truth of the vietnam

    Read More

  • Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy and the Vietnam War

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anderson, D. (2002). The Columbia guide to the Vietnam War. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Read More

  • Media's Take on The Beltway Sniper Attacks

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Seelye, Katharine. “Lack of News Doesn’t Deter Coverage.” New York Times. N.p. 16 Oct. 2002. Web. 09 May 2013.

    Read More

  • 1968: A Year Of American Transformation

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    The political and societal ramifications of Vietnam's Tet Offensive indubitably illustrate the historical oddity of 1968. 1967 had not been a bad year for most Americans. Four years after the profound panic evoked by the assassination of John Kennedy, the general public seemed to be gaining a restored optimism, and even the regularly protested Vietnam War still possessed the semblance of success (Farber and Bailey 34-54). However, three short weeks following the eve of ‘68, Americans abruptly obtained a radically different outlook. The Tet Offensive, beginning on January 30, 1968, consisted of a series of military incursions during the Vietnam War, coordinated between the National Liberation Front's People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF), or "Viet Cong," and the ...

    Read More

  • When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    Wirtz, James J. The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991. Print.

    Read More

More about The Impact of Media Coverage of the Tet Offensive on American Policy

Open Document