A. Plan of Investigation: The Tet Offensive was a psychological turning point for many Americans during the Vietnam War. This investigation will access what role the media had in shaping the negative opinions the American citizens had after the Tet Offensive of 1968. This investigation will focus on the public opinion of US involvement in the Vietman War and the trust and support Americans had for their military and government after the media’s portrayal of Tet Offensive. I will use the method of focusing on the misconceptions the press expressed to the public, false interpretations of the Tet Offensive regarding American military and government as well as facts that the press failed to express to the media.
President Nixon's Watergate scandal only seemed to fortify this distrust. Congress, in an effort to prevent another conflict like Vietnam in the future, passed the War Powers Act. This stated that Congress had to be informed that troops would be into possible combat situations, and had to take action of those troops within 60 days (Schulzinger, 1999). It would seem as though the Vietnam War and all of the battles our nation had to endure at this fragile moment in history would help define our nation. The United States was torn in many factions at that time period, Civil Rights Movement being a major one.
Aiming to win back support from the American’s, as many people did not support the Vietnam war due to the bad media that was publicised. This was the first War to be so publicised and it shocked many of the people back home. This lead to Anti-War protest, which became one of the US governments aims to stop. However they still stuck to the aim to try and contain Vietnam from the spread of communism and supporting the SV defeat the VC in nearby country Cambodia. On the other side the aims of the NV government and their terrorist organisation the VC did not alter as they still aimed to persuade the SV government to vote for Vietnam to become a communist country.
Politically the United States appeared impotent as a result of losing the Pueblo. Not only were we unable to prevent the North Koreans from taking one of our ships but we were then forced to make a written apology. Making a written apology is something school children do, not the United States of America. Yes, a military strike on North Korea following the capture of the Pueblo would have resulted in a larger military engagement on the peninsula at a time when we were already engaged in Vietnam. By doing what the United States did, we only emboldened an enemy that we are still battling
Americas politics, America used Diem as a way to stop to spread of communism in Vietnam, they supported him in becoming Vietnams first president and to set up an Anti-Communist government at the same time, this was another way for the us government to stop the spread of communism the American government also stopped a Vietnam vote for either capitalism of communism America when to extreme measures to stop this from happening. In 1964 the us navy reports of an incident involving two American destroyers and several Vietnamese gunships, this is what lead to the us declaring full out war on Vietnam and the Viet mihn, it stated that Viet gunships fired
Distressed by this unprecedented upsurge of mass fury, which needed federal troops at some places to establish peace, the then President, Lyndon Johnson, set up an enquiry commission formally known as the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which later on became more popular as the Kerner Commission, after its chairman, Otto J. Kerner Jr. While ruling out any conspiracy, the commission identified racial discrimination, poverty, high unemployment, poor & inadequate schools, poor health care and sanitation as major contributing factors to the United States’ racial apartheid. The early & selective leakage of this report incited ferocious criticism from the White community. Critics argued, that the report has blamed everyone except the rioters. The opposition was so strong and intense that, Johnson not only declined the request by commission members, but also took additional six months to disseminate its findings to the public at large and put the issue in right perspective, but he himself failed to act upon it.
The Vietnam War had support in the beginning, but by 1967, protest grew strong. This is almost a mirrored image of the war that started in 1991 against Iraq during the gulf war when the American people supported this fight; however today more and more protest grow wanting to pull all American troops out of Iraq. With the little bit of information gathered here I would have to guess that these two wars are being fought by the wrong
The hawks and doves were complete opposites, the hawk’s argument concluded that America must win the war in Vietnam in order to contain communism in Southeast Asia and preserve the nation’s prestige (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stroff, 2005). The doves on the other hand wanted the conflict in Vietnam ended immediately and the troops returned home. The political and social outcomes facing the United States because of the conflict in Vietnam ranged from a growing distrust of the decisions being made by the political leaders to the ever increasing cost of the conflict in Vietnam. The growing distrust helped to fuel the student unrest because the younger generation decided to voice their opinions and take a stand for those
In 1950 Australia was involved in the Vietnam War, as there was alliance with the Americans and involvement with Seato and Anzus. Australia believed it was there call to send troops to Vietnam due to alliance with American as they feared of the spreading of communism. The Vietnam War was broadcasted all over the world, for the first time people were viewing what was really involved in the War, this affected peoples mind with conscription, this left a big controversy with many people were both for and against. This lead to a protest called the moratoriums protest; this was the biggest division in society. When the first World Wat occurred in 1914, conscription was brought to discuss either young men would have to be forced to be involved
Richard Nixon Vietnamize the war (train the South Vietnamese to fight their own and the U.S. support them with bombing raids), mine North harbor, bombing and invasion of Cambodia and Laos ( Kent University demonstration Release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg revealed the war unwinnable, but presidents ignored the conclusion of CIA Nixon tried to stop its release( New York Times Co. v. United States S C: A free press was more important than keeping secrets of the government End draft (voluntary army), 26th Amendment reduced the voting age to 18 Congress passed the War Powers Act which prevented the president from sending troops to a foreign country for more than 60 days without a vote by Congress. “Ping Pong Diplomacy” with China Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (limit defensive missiles) & Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) (limit offensive missiles) ( Détente with USSR All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward Jimmy Carter: Return of the Panama Canal to Panama, Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, failure in the Iran Hostage