Media and American Withdrawal From Vietnam

Media and American Withdrawal From Vietnam

The history of Vietnam is characterised by struggles for independence

since French rule in 1859 after the French took Saigon, and a great

ability in warfare and continual determined resistance to foreign

domination.

Major military involvement by American armed forces came after events

such as Russian communist revolution in 1917 and the Korean War in the

1950's; these events put the America people in a period of moral panic

with McCarthyism, and domino theory. After the French defeat and the

following Geneva conference in 1954, where only a verbal military

truce was agreed. Signs of further fighting and full America

involvement were a clear possibility.

Vietnam was one of the first conflicts to be televised around the

world. Also it was impossible to keep all the forms of media under

censorship, this made film footage and news reports under the scrutiny

of the viewing public to judge for themselves. News films from the

battlefield were by 1968 being transmitted from Tokyo via satellite

(John Omicinski, Gannett News Service). Often these unedited films

went straight into the airwaves for the evening news in jumbled, in

unexplained minutes that gave the war an even more chaotic look.

Within days of the Tet attacks, American campuses were in an uproar.

Within weeks, many average Americans suddenly turned against the war

(John Omicinski, Gannett News Service). This and other factors, which

I will explain later in my study, lead to the American disillusionment

with the American government and its involvement in Vietnam.

On January 30th to the 31st, the North Vietnamese and their southern...

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...discipline problems they were having which caused

some of the media attention the war attracted. From this information

you can see that it favourable suggests that America could have

continued fighting in Vietnam, which may have produced a very

different result.

Despite this, you still can't say that the media is totally

responsible for the withdrawal of American fighting forces in Vietnam,

just because you cant see the problem doesn't means its not there.

Also there is a major issue with that theory of what if there was no

negative media coverage on the war? The problems is whether the

American forces could have adapted and solved their problems? So

therefore the only defiant thing you can say is that although the

media was a major contributor but not totally responsible for the

American withdrawal from Vietnam.