The Vietnam War

A population 's general knowledge of current events often times rest on the reliability of the media. The general population is then able to draw personal conclusions on the current events based off the media, which the population believes is factual.. The Vietnam War was one of the first wars that the media was able to take photographs and videos of the battlefield and be able to show them to the general public. For the first time the general public was able to see the true evidence instead of simply relying on the word of mouth from the media.The military press, called the Stars and Stripes, was struggling to deal with the low morale of the soldiers and needed new methods to lift up their spirits. What ensued was a military press that was selective in the stories they covered and used careful word choice of the United States military maneuvers. By doing so, they were able to exploit the atrocities of the North Vietnamese Army and cover up the stories of the US atrocities they committed themselves. The Stars and Stripes distorted the image of the Vietnam War and has left the American public with only half of the story.

Full Metal Jacket centers around a United States Marine refereed to as “Joker”. It follows him through the ruling months of bootcamp all the way through his first experiences out in the field. He becomes a writer for the Stars and Stripes and writes to boost troop morale in Vietnam and back home. He ends up following a platoon in the field as they raid a city during the Tet Offensive. Not only can we look at Full Metal Jacket to gain insight into the writers of the Stars and Stripes, but also look at it as a form of media itself and its impact on its audiences. In Our Vietnam War Never Ended, written by Viet Than...

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...acket shows how the United States media distorted the true events of the Vietnam War.

The United States public may not have been aware of the twisting of facts during the Vietnam War era. Their trust in the media’s truthfulness led them to be misinformed about the world events during their time. The American public was unaware, and still may be, of the atrocities and crimes the United States government committed in Vietnam. Even today, the American public still relies on the media for its vast majority of information on the world 's current events. It is important for us, civilians of the United States, to look at our untruthful past and be wary of the information being presented for us. We must not simply take information to be true because it was presented to us by the media, we must enquire deeper to assure ourselves that we know the truth of what is going on.