Media Role In The Vietnam War

Television, ads, music, and all other forms of media drastically affect the views and beliefs of the American people, even today. However, what happens in a time of war? What happens to the American morale and view on war when the American people are receiving the worst news through the media? During The Vietnam War, almost every household in the country had a way of receiving the news, usually through the means of a television screen; however, as the Vietnam War progressed, most of the news the American people received was bad news they did not want to hear. For starters, at the beginning of the war, the war was not really described in media; however, as the war quickly progressed, journalists were sent to Vietnam in large numbers. Furthermore,

However, after mass civilian death in Vietnam under President Diem and a huge wave of patriotism in the United States, journalists began being sent to Vietnam in large numbers. According to Vietnam War Info’s article “Media Role in The Vietnam War, after the New York Times sent their first reporter over to Saigon, reporters from other places followed such as Reuters and Agency France Press. The journalists being sent over to Vietnam were at first encouraged to capture images and report on the war; therefore, news agencies began sending mass numbers of reporters as the war continued. Due to the American government’s encouragement of the media’s involvement, there were little restrictions on what the media could report or where they had to be. In fact, according to Ronald Spector’s article, “The Vietnam War and The Media”, the U.S. Military Assistance Command made military transportation available to reporters and some were even placed on the fields of battles to gather first-hand accounts. However, being close to the battle cites posed obvious risks for journalists, and Spector went on to discuss that more than 60 journalists were actually killed during the war. All in all, at the beginning of the war, the American people were highly interested in the news media and the reporters were just as

Once the news started reporting more and more death and destruction, the U.S. government started to regret their little restrictions and encouragement they had given reporters. In fact, the Vietnam War Info’s article discussed that due to the inadequate restrictions given by the government, the media began publishing uncensored reports that started to shape the public opinion. Basically, the reports and images that were being shown in almost every American household shown a negative light on the war and only really portrayed the bad news. Furthermore, Vietnam War Info also described that the Tet Offensive completely changed the media’s coverage of the war to that of a mainly negative viewpoint. Vietnam War Info went on to explain that even though the Tet Offensive was a military victory for the U.S. the news only discussed the casualties and twisted the story into a failure, which changed the American’s view. As the brutality brought to the American public’s view increased, the public’s view on the war began to shift into an anti-war