The Gulf Of Tonking was also a very important incidence in which a media played a very vital role. Even though the reasons why President Lyndon Johnson ordered the bombing of the four North Vietnamese torpedo boats bases and oil storage depot were extremely controversial. President Johnson used the Medias to express his views. The president appeared on television and told the American people that ‘repeated acts of violence against armed forces of the united states must be met not only with alert defense but with a positive reply’. This was a very crucial point in the war in Vietnam and the Medias role. This was mainly because of the fact that this was the reason the war began. The president had the whole support of the media and in turn he had the whole support of the country.
Three months after being elected president Lyndon Johnson launched ‘operation rolling thunder’. Unlike the single bombing raid in august 1964 this time the raids were to take place on a regular basis. The plan for this was to destroy the North Vietnam economy and force her to stop helping the guerilla fighters in the south. ‘Operation rolling thunder’ was supposed to last 8 weeks but lasted 3 years. During this time the first ‘official’ US combat troops were to be sent to the country. This dramatic escalation of the war was presented to the American public as being short-term measure and did not cause much criticism at the time. A public opinion poll carried out at the time indicated that nearly 80% of the American public supported the bombing raids and the sending of combat troops to Vietnam. As the war continued the American public was introduced to the guerilla tactics which were to be deployed throughout the war. The American public began to realize that this war was not going to end soon. And during this time many atrocities occurred which the media thrived on. Events such as racial attacks, suicide by soldiers, attacks on commanders and even mistreatment of P.O.W’s was continuously reported in America, slowly changing the public view of the war. As more and more pictures came back from the battle fields in Vietnam, the people of America slowly began to get demoralized. The Vietnam War was not supposed to be this long. The swift precise attacks promised by the U.S army were not occurring, making the people of the America wonder about what they are doing was for the correct reasons, and it also made people wonder what these reasons were.
Single man protests publicized by the media did not help with the war effort. The most famous being the stand by the world boxing heavyweight champion at the time Muhammad Ali, who declined from going, for religious and personal reasons. Soldiers were coming back from the war either in body bags, or with immense psychological problems. Moreover the mass use of chemical weapons by the U.S forces possibly opened the eyes of people the best. Chemicals such as ‘agent orange’ and ‘agent blue’ cause huge outcries from people all around the world. Images were broadcasted around the world; pictures were published in papers touching every man’s heart.
The Tet offensive also played quite a major role in the media perspective in during the war in Vietnam. The Tet offensive shocked the self-confidence of the American people. In recent months leading to the event the people were told through the media hat the NLF was close to defeat and now they strong enough to take important buildings in the capital of south Vietnam. Another disturbing factor was that even with the large losses of 1967, the NLF could still send 70,000 men into battle. Generals were especially angered by the way the media covered the Tet offensive. General Maxwell Taylor wrote later : ‘ the picture of a few flaming Saigon houses, presented by a gloomy voiced telecaster as an instance of the destruction caused in the capital, created the inevitable impression that this was th way it was in all or most of Saigon’ The Tet offensive convinced the American public and the government that the was being lost and the only option was to with draw from Vietnam.
There were many war protest’s which occurred during the Vietnam war. The first occurred in December 1964. As the war continued more and more Americans turned against the war.. When the US was found guilty of using weapons against the Vietnamese people which were prohibited by international law. It was not only embarrassing for the American people but also enlightening.
IN 1967, the Vietnam veterans against the war, was formed. They demonstrated all across America. Many of them were in wheel chairs or on crutches. People watched on television as Vietnam ‘heroes’ threw away medals they won fighting in the war. One shouted: ‘here is my merit badge for murder’.
Other events including the death of students in Kent state university and the My Lai massacre all played immense factors in which the media played a vital role.
The publicity surrounding the My Lai massacre proved to be an important turning point in American public opinion. It illustrated the deterioration that was taking place in the behavior of the US troops and undermined the moral argument about the need to save Vietnam from the evils of communism, The view that, Vietnam was not only being destroyed in order to save it but it was becoming clear that those responsible for the defeating communism were being severely damaged by their experiences.
One of the most influential acts during the war was the decision of to fill one edition of its with photographs of the 242 US soldiers killed in Vietnam during one week of the fighting.
It was this type of reporting that encouraged General , commander of US troops in Vietnam, to accuse the mass media of helping to bring about a victory. However, defenders of the mass media claimed that reporters were only reflecting the changing opinions of the American towards the war.
However public opinion polls carried out at the suggest that the increases to pay for the war and the death of someone they knew, were far more influential than the mass media in changing people's attitude towards the war.
