American Media during the War

American Media During the War

By: Connor Standring

       The media coverage of the war was at it's time, the most covered ever in history.  However, due to the result of the war concluding with a Vietnam victory, many people have been quick to criticize the media coverage of the war.  The majority of these critics have said that the majority of the coverage was either written by or reported by an individual who was personally opposed to the war, which in the eyes of the critics, means that they're information provided more negative and misleading coverage and was a form of propaganda to turn the support from the citizens of the United States away from the involvement of the U.S.  Many lawmakers, military leaders and historians also believe that American journalists did a poor job of explaining key events of their For example, President Nixon stated that the media didn't provide a clear understanding of the "underlying purpose" of the battles and certain decisions that were made that the citizens learned about.  " Eventually this contributed to the impression that we were fighting in military and moral quicksand," said Nixon when addressing the media coverage of the war.  Other critics say that some journalists even jumped to conclusions before knowing that their information was 100% accurate.  One example would  be the "Tet Offensive"  which was mistakenly published as a United States military defeat.  Others even say, reporters and journalists from different companies were very competitive and were trying to come up with the most interesting an dramatic story, rather than providing the full truth.  Lastly, the media was also criticized for providing graphic content of wounded soldiers and military attacks, which would gear the attitudes of the American people in a negative way.  This is very important because the poor attitude of the American people was one of the key factors that lead to the Americans withdrawing themselves from the war. 
       However, every story has a second perspective and that is the view of those who supported the media coverage during the war.  Many reporters say that the war in Vietnam was a learning experience for the American media and that our government and media both learned from this experience.  Journalists, however do not believe they in any way changed the attitudes of the American people and that they had established their beliefs before the media could publish any stories, even though they do agree that at times their information was superficial  Some historians do in fact believe that the majority of the coverage wasn't geared towards showing graphic and disturbing content, and that they covered very significant concerns and events, and that the war wasn't lost because of poor media, but because of poor strategy.  Media historian Lawrence Lichty, less than 5% of American media coverage during the war showed close-up violent content between 1965 and 1970.   Although, since the war, Journalists now have more restrictions on what can be covered during conflicts that American troops are involved.