Armed with this knowledge, the trusted broadcast journalist decided to air grim editorial detailing his own impressions of the war in Vietnam" (pg 120, 121) When he did this editorial his understanding of the war got the public to feel they were being lied to because they had believed we were winning. Even President Richard Nixon believed that the television was something harmful to Americans. In 1971, Nixon even stated that "aside from the communists, our worse enemy seems to be the press." With this understand we
Many suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and countless other physical ailments that went unnoticed by the general public. Some people might believe that the Vietnam War was wrong in its entirety. As a result, those people might think that the Veterans are getting what they deserve for being over there. They believe that the soldiers deserved to be scorned when they got back, and not treated as heroes. In an article entitled The Vietnam Syndrome, John Kerry stated that, at the time, soldiers did not know the atrocities they committed in Vietnam were war crimes.
Many American citizens in 1959 viewed the Vietnam War as a righteous battle against communism, similar to the Iraq War today however now many view this war as a necessary battle against terrorism. Looking at America's overall goal in Vietnam, it is evident that we did not come close to keeping South Vietnam from collapsing, who fell to communist rule in 1975 (Frankum 210). America's involvement in the conflicts of Vietnam and Iraq were so discordant that our government, people, and military were constricted. Yet both wars were fought with the knowledge that America may change the invaded nation, which brings a precarious question; what makes the government believe that they have the right to go into a country and change it to the way they
This occurred some years after 1950. In the 1960s and 70s, the American public became very angry and frustrated with the military-industrial complex. The protest against the Vietnam War had reached its very highest. In President Eisenhower‘s farewell address, he warned, “ In the councils of government, we must guard against acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” The American public should refrain from gaining any negative or unauthorized influences by the military-industrial complex.
During the Vietnam War, the United States (U.S.) government and the media had a tenuous relationship and many have blamed the media for interfering with government policy. George Shultz, former Secretary of State in the Regan administration, said of journalists “it seems as though reporters are always against us and they are always trying to screw things up.”1 Government officials are not the only ones to charge the media with an opposition mentality. Robert Elegant, a reporter for the LA Times/Washington Post news service in Vietnam, felt that the U.S. and South Vietnam military successfully did their part, only to see political pressure from the media stop Washington from supporting Saigon after U. S. withdraw in 1973.2 In fact, following
One of the most controversial conflicts in our Nations history is definitely the Vietnam War. Today there is a lot of skepticism with America’s involvement in the War and I believe the biggest thing that gave people so much skepticism is the media’s portrayal of the War. The mainstream news stations of the time seemed to care more about entertainment, trying to get the most interesting story in order to keep their ratings high and keep people on the edge of their seat. The Documentary we watched in class gave a good look at how the media was more into story telling and less into giving people the facts that they deserve. I think that the film did a really good job at exposing the media for it’s horrible performance during the Vietnam War.
This, along with other factors led to the troop’s morale being dangerously low. Another turning point in the war, the Tet offensive, had lowered the troops’ Morales because it had planted the seed to the US public that the US may not be victorious in their quest to end communism but the events in My Lai only worsened the situation. Now the troops were mistrusted by the US public and were starting to doubt if they could win the war themselves. Although the US public mistrusted the army they mistrusted the Government more. Although the My Lai massacre happened in 1968 it was only released to the public more than a
Vietnam War Prior to Vietnam, the American populous held their Schools, Congressman, and official institutions in a high regard. Some Americans felt that even though the intentions of the Government were good when entering the conflict, it was a battle that could never be won and there was too great of a burden on the country economically and social to continue the war. Others felt that the United States was in Vietnam for a purpose and should stay until their task was accomplished. It’s hard to determine the long-term effects of Vietnam to the American public. Although many students were moved by the war, it also caused great changes to politics in the United States.
The Vietnam war was between North Vietnamese versus the United States and the South Vietnamese army. The United States became involved in the Vietnam war because it believed that if all the country fell under the Communist government, Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. This belief was known as the “domino theory” . The US therefore supported the South Vietnamese because there beliefs where non-communism. The government they set up was failing so in 1965 the United States send in troops to prevent collapse of it.
(Thanks to Howard Zinn's A People’s History of the United States [2] for inspiration.) Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans are either unaware of these harmful practices or have been misled about their necessity. These are some clear examples of why we should not trust the military rhetoric: •At the top of the list, of course, is the war in Vietnam, where we fought to free people who didn’t want to be freed, much less killed, and against a country which had little chance of threatening us. •But besides that, instead of responding with outrage, we’ve bowed to our own self-interest and supplied actual money and military manpower to torturous regimes and murderers of their own citizens in such countries as the Philippines (in 1980), Nicaragua (early 80’s), El Salvador (80’s), East Timor (90’s and earlier), and Colombia (now). •For dubious or even manufactured reasons, we’ve invaded Cuba (Bay of Pigs, 1961) and Grenada (1983).