Until the Tet Offensive media coverage of the Vietnam War was of mild and positive reports of the fighting. Media reporters had only been filming in isolated areas of combat that didn’t show the harsh fighting that was occurring elsewhere. Public opinion of the Vietnam War was greatly affected after the Tet Offensive. Images that the media displayed of the fighting between U.S, ARVN forces and North Vietnam, Vietcong forces played a great factor into the drop in support from the American public about the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive was a propaganda failure.
Tet is a holiday celebrated by the Vietnamese people in honor of the Vietnamese New Year. This holiday caused a seven day cease fire by the North and South Vietnamese sides. Due to the cease fire Vietnamese soldiers were able celebrate this honorary holiday with their families. The Tet Offensive began January 31st 1968, when the North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong attacked over 100 cities in South Vietnam, breaking the cease fire agreement. They targeted against population centers and U.S. installations. The U.S and ARVN forces were able to overcome the surprise attacks from the communist forces. In some locations the U.S. and ARVN forces had hours of advance notice. This was caused by the North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong having failed to communicate and attack everywhere all at the same time. The fighting during the Tet Offensive was different than the U.S. soldiers were used to. This fighting was done in urban areas, which involved a lot of civilians as well as U.S soldiers having to always be on the lookout for snipers. The North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces were not able to hold their captured cities and were forced to withdraw. Although each side suffered fr...
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...e U.S. was making no progress in Vietnam they would not be happy about sending their father’s, son’s, and brother’s to fight in a war that they felt was not worth fighting for.
The Tet Offensive media made the American public see the true extent of the fighting that was happening in Vietnam. After these realizations had been made the American public found it difficult to trust the government since they had been so misinformed about the Vietnam War. The media images released did not help boost American support for the war, it did the exact opposite. Public opinion of the Vietnam War was greatly affected after the Tet Offensive. Images that the media displayed of the fighting between U.S, ARVN forces and North Vietnam, Vietcong forces were a great factor into the drop in support from the American public about the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive was a propaganda failure
The Vietnam War was the most publicized war during its era; moreover, this was the most unpopular war to hit the United States. All over the country riots began to rise, anti-war movement spread all over the states begging to stop the war and chaos overseas. This truly was a failure on the political side of things. For the public, all they saw was a failed attempt in a far away country. Events such as the Tet Offensive where the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong established an all out attack on key locations around Vietnam, and although the Viet Cong was virtually wiped out, this still had a large affect psychologically on the troops as well as the populist back in the United States.
Due to the volatile conditions of the Vietnam War, the protestors believed that they should not be involved in a war that they cared so little about. Public opinion heavily swayed during the war as only one senator dissented from the overwhelming opinion to fight the war (Amter 45). However, as President Johnson escalated the war and the Draft increased by 25% in 1968, those youths being conscripted were infuriated (Dougan 118). Not only this, the North Vietnamese began a ruthless offensive on American soldiers by merciless attacking our bases. This resulted in US victories, but also US casualties (Dougan 116). Also, the marines stationed at the bases began to use offensive attacks to deter Viet Cong assault against the wishes of General Taylor (Karnov 443). With these new less defensive strategy, Nixon announced plans to start operations in Cambodia, and to increase the bombings overall in Southeast Asia (Dougan 180). Some missions even began t...
The Vietnam War was the longest war in America's history of involvement. Twenty years of hell, land mines, cross-fire, and death. Vietnam was divided by the Geneva Accord. The north being communist run by Ho Chi Minh. The south being anti-Communist run by Ngo Dinh Diem. Before Vietnam was separated, it was run by France. France had ruled most of Indochina since the late 1800s. The Vietnamese were unhappy with the way the French were controlling, therefore, many of them took refuge in China. When in China, they began to follow the lead of Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to model the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence as that of the U.S. version. In the 1940s, Japan had taken over Vietnam which upset Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries when they had returned a year later.
It is quite important to note that there was a time where the majority of Americans did not see involvement in Vietnam as a mistake. According to a Gallup poll conducted in August of 1965, 24% of Americans believed it was wrong to have US combatants in Vietnam. These numbers steadily rose throughout the years. It was not until August 1968 did a majority of Americans, approximately 53%, feel we made a poor decision. What caused this discontent with our involvement? Overall, the American public was seeing many young men die for a cause that they could not articulate. The futility of these losses was frustrating. There were other specific events that added to hatred of the War in
If people do not believe in what they are fighting for and are drafted into a war they do not want to fight, people will not fight with honor for their country. Being drafted into a war someone does not want to fight causes him or her to fight that war to escape with their life, not to earn a victory for their country. The United States intervened into Vietnam to try and stop the spread of communism into South Vietnam (HISTORY.com,. "Vietnam War History). They declared we needed a draft to help supply troops to fuel the war against communism, but in the end the result was the same. The Draft was an unneeded part of the Vietnam War. If the draft would have never been introduced less protestors to the war would have risen and more volunteers would have came forward and sent to Vietnam. When American troops were beginning to be withdrawn from Vietnam, it was not because of a lack of troops, but from a lack of support (Walpole, Andy.). The lack of support and the idea of and unwinnable war was the cause of a slow end to the terrible war efforts. The American ideals changed from the start to the finish of the war, hating the soldiers when they came back. The last troops did not return home from Vietnam until 1973(Walpole, Andy.). This vast difference in time between the first troops to leave and the last troops to leave was the cause of much resentment among the
In fact, the Tet Offensive broke out on the Tet's Eve - in the early
Men in the Vietnam War did not know why they were there fighting in Vietnam and what their purpose was there. The United States justified their involvement in the war by asserting that they were combating communism and preventing communistic North Vietnam from taking over the more democratic South Vietnam. This affected the soldiers because they did not know why they were there killing the innocent villagers and civilians. They destroyed land and crops to combat the Viet Cong and the effects of Agent Orange, the toxin used to destroy the vegetation, are still prevalent today. A second reason the United States (U.S.) justified their implication in the Vietnam War was to prevent the spread of communism across Asia. The U.S. came up with the Domino Theory and said that if Vietnam became a communist country then so would the countries around it and so on and so forth (Herring). This war on communism did not bring any solutions because even today Vietnam is still a communist country; therefore, the soldiers do not feel they had fought for a real cause. No one received anything that was satisfactory to him or her from the war. The men ended up going home scared for life at the violence and deat...
-Marshall McLuhan, 1975 Newspaper reporters and television commentators were free to question the wisdom of fighting the war When the war initially began, the US marines were backed fully buy the people of America. Hundreds of men volunteered to join the army and felt that this was their duty to protect their country. But as the war dragged on the press soon began to change its point of view and was eventually accused of being 'un patriotic' and even guilty of 'helping the enemy'. There were various reasons why public opinion changed as the war hauled through for such a long period of time, leaving lasting scars in the history of the world. Possibly one on the most significant and emotional events which occurred in Vietnam was far before US marines were actually fighting a guerilla war in Vietnam.
The United States began sending troops to Vietnam to support the French in the 1950’s. During the next 25 years, the ensuing wars would cost 5 million people’s lives and create a series of domestic tensions in the U.S, like the Vietnam War protest movement and the Military Draft. Even though the Vietnam War had been considered the only war that Americans ever lost, many Americans believed it was a noble cause. Like President Johnson had said in 1965, “We have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence. To dishonor that pledge, to abandon this small and brave nation to its enemies, and to the terror that must follow, would be an unforgivable wrong.”
“In July 1965, Lyndon Johnson chose to Americanize the war in Vietnam.” Although Johnson chose to enter America into the war, there were events previous that caused America to enter and take over the war. The South Vietnamese were losing the war against Communism – giving Johnson all the more reason to enter the war, and allowing strong American forces to help stop communism. There were other contributing factors leading up to the entrance of the war; America helped assist the French in the war, Johnson’s politics, the Tonkin Gulf Incident, and the 1954 Geneva Conference. President Johnson stated, “For 10 years three American Presidents-President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present President--and the American people have been actively concerned with threats to the peace and security of the peoples of southeast Asia from the Communist government of North Viet-Nam.”
In regards to the role of the antiwar movement was depicted in ways to exemplify how it effected the people in Vietnam and America. In both countries citizens suffered because of the war. The war had traumatic effects on both countries. The bombing of North Vietnam was devastating for the vietnamese. Americans were also effected because citizens were dying in Vietnam and citizens were dying in America due to some of the anti-war protests. Ehrhart described the horrific scenery that he witnessed during the war and during the anti-war protest in Washington D.C. The effects of the war caused people in both Vietnam and America to rebel and do things that resulted in unnecessary civilian casualties.
There were many events that lead up the Vietnam War, it started in 1945 with the hostilities between the French and Vietminh. “Geopolitical Strategy, economics, domestic US politics, and cultural arrogance shaped the growing American involvement in Vietnam” (Anderson 1). As a matter of fact, the Vietnam War was several wars, but it was not until 1962 that America had their first combat mission, however, Americans were killed during ambushes by the Vietnamese before the first combat mission. There is much controversy over the reasons for the Vietnam War, supported by the several different books and articles written about the war. “The most famous atrocity occurred in a tiny hamlet called My Lai in March 1968” (Detzer 127). History shows that the reaction of many Americans to the attack by US soldiers on the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War was opposition, and the actions of the US soldiers during the My Lai Massacre will be forever remembered as a significant part of the Vietnam War and American History.
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 ...
For nine years, the United States were hell-bent in achieving their rightful victory in Vietnam, however, destiny had different plans for them. The Tet Offensive is considered the turning point of the Vietnam Conflict because of the fact that the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army surprised the U.S and South Vietnam with several sporadic attacks. Consequently, many effects from these attacks were expected, not only for America, but for North and South Vietnam as well. With U.S citizens’ opinions quickly turning against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, South Vietnam faced much disaster. Its government was stricken with humility because of the increased abandonment of their army, leading to the inability to protect its citizens. On the other hand, North Vietnam began accepting great amounts of land along with the power to frighten the rural population.
The Vietnam War took action after the First Indochina War, in fact the Vietnam War is also known as the Second Indochina War. This war included the communist North Vietnam and its allies of the Viet Cong, the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies going against South Vietnam and its allies, the Unites States, Philippines and other anti-communist allies. It was a very long and conflicting war that actually started in 1954 and ended in 1975. The war began after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist party in North Vietnam. More than three million people were killed during the war, this included approximately 58,000 Americans and more than half of the killed were actually Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnam War ended by the communist forces giving up control of Saigon and the next year the country was then unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many people, including both men and women were directly and indirectly involved within the war itself. Women worked many different roles in the Vietnam War, and they are most definitely not credited enough for all that they actually did.