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

The Impact of the Media on the Vietnam state of warThis try will discuss to what degree the media fire be blamed for the United States issue in the Vietnam conflict ending 1975. It will be based predominantly on key written resources on the subject, but it will in addition 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 es put 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 policy-making climate in the US the war 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 forces 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 t he Second World War became 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 essential 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 non 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 spectacular failure during a hunt for a minuscule group of rebels approximately 400 civilians were killed by American troops. With the conflict on the spur of the moment caught in the media spotlight, a small group of war correspondents were sent to Vietnam. The reporters were f rom the NYT, promulgate Tribune, AP , UPI , Reuters and AFP . Stringers and / or reporters from Newsweek, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and the Observer concisely followed. (Knightly 1975) Eventually when the conflict escalated further Indochina was flooded 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 other 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 megabucks to. Works citedAlbig, W (1939) Public Opinion New York McGraw-Hill Cook, M et al. (2001) Tet disgusting http//www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=tet+offensive Herman, E.S. and Chom sky, N (1988) Manufacturing Consent The political economy of the tidy sum media New York trashtheon Books Kennedy, W.V (1993) The Military and the Media Why the closet Cannot Be Trusted to deny 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) converse 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