Mass Media and the Vietnam War

Vietnam Question 5

Many people at the beginning and before the Vietnam War were in confusion on whether going to war was such a good thing; this mainly consisted of the American public. By the time it had reached the peak of the war much of the American public had swung towards being for the war. This was mainly due the mass media at the time, one integral part of the mass media that often swayed public opinion was television, it proved to be such an effective method of communication, that it often shocked and consequently altered public opinion. Television wasn’t the only form of mass media; there were magazines and the radio. Radio was a large form of communication at the time as many households could not afford a television and so radio would be the soul means of keeping up to date with news from around the globe. Thousands were killed and it was because of mass media that much of the public were able to discover that, this switched the American Public a little bit into being opposed to the war, also hearing about shocking events such as the My Lai Massacre and the Tet Offensive. The Economic Cost was extreme as well; taxes were raised to compensate for all the money wasted after going to war. In the end mass media had swayed public opinion into being for the war as source m suggests.

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The Mass Media consisted of a variety types of media but as most people would agree, the most powerful part was television. It could used in so many ways to manipulate the minds of the American Public and because at the time new technology had meant that television had now become colour, it was clear to see what was truly going on out there during the war. When much of the fighting went on, it was filmed live, so people would be watching actual events unfold in front of them, this would often shock many people, television companies making sure that the Vietnamese looked like the bad guys and as Source G suggests sway the American public into backing up the boys in Vietnam. Television was often great quality and very hard to avoid as it was everywhere, many households had access to one as well. Source G was an article in “Newsweek” a US magazine that was published in 1967. This Source gives us statistics telling us that 64% of viewers said that television had made them feel like backing up the boys in Vietnam, while 26% had felt opposed to the War. This tells us that Television had played a major role in swaying people into being in favour of the war. There is a considerable percentage in favour of the war here compared to the 26% which means that the television probably used lots of propaganda against the Vietnamese. It shows that television did have an absolute enormous impact on the war, because it meant that the American public would become strongly in favour of it and so with the backing of his people, the American President would be in no hurry to terminate this war. Source G was written in 1967 before the Tet Offensive and My Lai Massacre, so many Americans believed that they would win the war, death figures were low and things seemed to be going smoothly for the Americans, towards the end of the War the public started to become opposed to the War. In Source I we can see a letter written by a US soldier fighting in Vietnam. This is a letter informing us what is occuring in Vietnam first hand, telling his family bluntly what is happening, this is reliable because this is coming from an actual soldier first hand and he is telling how it is. In his letter he talks of the terrible events that are happening during the war, he talks about the young soldiers involved and how the average age is eighteen. It was written in 1969 and so it is very likely that this Soldier has seen the My Lai massacre and the Tet Offensive. This letter was sent on by the family to another type of mass media, the newspaper, millions of Americans read this letter and so meant that people were starting to become against the war very strongly, it shows that the war was a shocking and frightening experience. When images of what this soldier describes were shown on television it made a big impact on the American public, they would have heavily shocked the American public and so sway there opinion. Source J is an article written by “Time” magazine in January 1970. It describes the horrors of the My Lai Massacre. When this was printed and read by millions it would have made a major impact because people would have realised the true horrors and that, the Vietnamese didn’t have the only part to play in this, for the first time the American Public could see that the Americans had been just as cruel as the Vietnamese. The My Lai Massacre was also shown live on television which would have been even more shocking than reading that article in the magazine because people would have been actually viewing it rather than just reading it. Again, this would have turned the American public against the American Army, along with the Tet offensive the My Lia massacre were two major events shown on television that would have had major impact upon the Public and so change there opinion on the war. In Source M we find an article about the war in Vietnam from “The Spectator” in July 1972, it says of how television is preferred by the public to be a lot more discreet than what was being shown. This is true when the word squeamish is used, a lot of the public are squeamish, they don’t want anything on the television to be real, but the shocking and truthful thing was, it was true. The main turning points would have to been the Tet Offensive and the My Lia Massacre, especially the My Lai Massacre. If there hadn’t been shocking images like those of the My Lai Massacre shown to millions on television then the American public wouldn’t have known the full extent of the War and so wouldn’t have decided to go against the war. Television you could say made a big enough impact that it made the War end how it did. The president was under pressure from the American public, the soldiers were becoming more and more worn down and a large majority of this was due to television. So in conclusion I agree very strongly that television did play a big part in changing opinions during the Vietnam War, if it hadn’t been for television it may not have ended how it ended.

By Sean Mckinnon