The Impact of the Media on the Vietnam War Essay -- Vietnam War Essays

The Impact of the Media on the Vietnam WarThis essay go out discuss to what degree the media can be blamed for the United States loss in the Vietnam troth ending 1975. It will be based predominantly on key written resources on the subject, but it will also contain - by means of an interview - certain first-hand observations from a Vietnam War veteran.For the sake of conciseness, and in order to focus the bulk of the content on the main topic, this essay will make certain assumptions. Most importantly, the essay assumes that the conflict in Vietnam was, indeed, lost by the US. It also presupposes that due to the political climate in the US the struggle itself was unavoidable. Finally, the essay takes for granted that the reader has a basic knowledge of the reasons and major events behind the US military intervention in Vietnam from the mid-1950s until 1975. In the late 1960s, the low-intensity conflict in Indochina that had been in progress since the end of the Second World War b ecame a full-scaled war. In order for the transition from low-intensity conflict to war to have taken place, a change in the public opinion surrounding the war must have taken place, resulting in the politicians of the time having support for the conflict. When the invasion was initiated, it was be that the politicians in effect had the press in their pockets the American press was not asking why there was a need for intervention, but rather how the logistics and economics of the invasion would fit together (Herman & Chomsky 1988). Escalation of conflict The US media did not become interested in the conflict until November 1960, when the US troops stationed in Saigon suffered a owing(p) failure during a hunt for a weakened group of rebels approximately 400 civilians were killed by American troops. With the conflict suddenly caught in the media spotlight, a small group of war correspondents were sent to Vietnam. The reporters were from the NYT, Herald Tribune, AP , UPI , Reuters and AFP . Stringers and / or reporters from Newsweek, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and the Observer soon followed. (Knightly 1975) Eventually when the conflict escalated further Indochina was swamp with war correspondents (Herman & Chomsky 1988, 193) Warfare can be conducted for many reasons. In the case of the Vietnam conflict, the conflic... ... The media showed what happened, no more. And what was going on in Vietnam was not pretty, as with most separate wars. It is safe to say that the media did not lose the war, but rather expressed the feeling that the US soldiers were dying by the thousands without a good reason. As Melnick quite profoundly summarises it Nobody wants to die for somebody elses country, and thats what it boiled down to. Works citedAlbig, W (1939) Public Opinion New York McGraw-Hill Cook, M et al. (2001) Tet revolting http//www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=tet+offensive Herman, E.S. and Chomsky, N (1988) Manufacturing Consent The political economy of t he mass media New York Pantheon Books Kennedy, W.V (1993) The Military and the Media Why the Press Cannot Be Trusted to Cover a War. New York Praeger Publishers Knightly, P (1975) The First Casualty London Pan Books Lugo, J (8 Oct 2002) Lecture Manufacturing consent and public opinion. Liverpool John Moores University Melnick, Mark (12 Oct 2002) Interview via e-mail Media and Vietnam Schulzinger, R.D. (1998) A time for war The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975 New York Oxford University Press