To what extent was the media responsible for the American withdrawal from Vietnam?
Tony Hush
To what extent was the media responsible for the American withdrawal from Vietnam?
The history of Vietnam is characterised by struggles for independence since French rule in 1859 after the French took Saigon, and a great ability in warfare and continual determined resistance to foreign domination.
Major military involvement by American armed forces came after events such as Russian communist revolution in 1917 and the Korean War in the 1950's; these events put the America people in a period of moral panic with McCarthyism, and domino theory. After the French defeat and the following Geneva conference in 1954, where only a verbal military truce was agreed. Signs of further fighting and full America involvement were a clear possibility.
Vietnam was one of the first conflicts to be televised around the world. Also it was impossible to keep all the forms of media under censorship, this made film footage and news reports under the scrutiny of the viewing public to judge for themselves. News films from the battlefield were by 1968 being transmitted from Tokyo via satellite (John Omicinski, Gannett News Service). Often these unedited films went straight into the airwaves for the evening news in jumbled, in unexplained minutes that gave the war an even more chaotic look. Within days of the Tet attacks, American campuses were in an uproar. Within weeks, many average Americans suddenly turned against the war (John Omicinski, Gannett News Service). This and other factors, which I will explain later in my study, lead to the American disillusionment with the American government and its involvement in Vietnam.
On January 30th to the 31st, the North Vietnamese and their southern Viet Cong guerrilla allies mounted a serious of coordinated attacks on more then 30 supposedly safe cities. Including the south's capital and America strong hold Saigon. These attacks were called the Tet offensive because it came in the ceasefire during the Asian Tet holiday. The Tet offensive became a watershed news story, seemingly changing not only military realities but also America culture and journalism. Coming at the beginning of 1968, which for the America people was filled with tragic events such as the assassinations of Martin Luther King and, Sen. Robert Kennedy.
The Tet offensive was seen as a turning point for the whole war. It was seen to signalise the end of America's 'Big Win'. The phrase, 'The Big Win' was a slogan used by leading American military and political officials in an attempt to encourage volunteering and confidence in the public eyes of an American victory. The images of the Tet offensive attacks were shocking and very distressing to the American people, they saw images of Viet Cong guerrillas breaching the American embassy at Saigon and two marines dragging a wound and bloodied buddy from fighting in Hue. Don Oberdorfer a Washington reporter and author of the book called "Tet!" said
"There's no doubt Tet was one of the biggest events in contemporary American history, within two months the, American body politically turned around on the war. And they were significantly influenced by events they saw on television".
The Tet offensive was in direct reaction to operation 'Rolling Thunder'. The systematic attacks on every city above the border, in the north signalled to the American and international press that the war was now unwinnerable. American press icon Walter Cronkite's broadcast in February 27th 1968 saying the war was
'Mired in stalemate' and the 'only rational way ...
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"There's no doubt Tet was one of the biggest events in contemporary American history, within two months the, American body politically turned around on the war. And they were significantly influenced by events they saw on television".
The Tet offensive was in direct reaction to operation 'Rolling Thunder'. The systematic attacks on every city above the border, in the north signalled to the American and international press that the war was now unwinnerable. American press icon Walter Cronkite's broadcast in February 27th 1968 saying the war was
'Mired in stalemate' and the 'only rational way out would be to negotiate nor as victors, but as honourable people...'
Before the Tet offensive the America army officials had been conducting operation 'Rolling Thunder' which was heavy bombing of North Vietnam. Also America officials had said that America efforts in Vietnam had 'turned a corner' in Vietnam. However after the Tet offensive, the press portrayed it as a severe loss for American and South Vietnamese troops and claimed the war was now unwinnerable. After this statements and damaging reports by the press, the facts show that although the North Vietnamese attackers timed their attacks to catch the American troops off guard during ceasefire. Nonetheless, they suffered more then 58,000 deaths and suffered serious military setbacks in the succeeding weeks. US troops, on the other hand only suffered losses amounting to a mere 3,895 in comparison in the following 12 weeks, and still the American press saw the loss on the side of America.
After the Tet offensive the media began to attack the American involvement in Vietnam. It became clear to the American public that there was no clear way to win the war; they saw thought the political propaganda. The problem America officials had was that they had a political aim, which the people supported, however they lacked the military plan to meet their aims.
In reaction to public mood the media started sending damaging reports from the frontlines, they suggested that American troops lacked the specific training for the terrain and the type of warfare they were subjected to. They also gave the idea to people that the new rebellious generation and the great pressures of the war meant that many soldiers were drug abusers and carrying out atrocities.
With these factors the media concentrated on civilian casualties and incidents such as the one in My Lai, which was ironically put with a famous quote by an unnamed officer produced by the Tet offensive.
"We had to destroy the village to save it" (John Omicimski, Gannett News Service
These images on people's televisions across the globe, left people in outrage, many had lost faith in the war and saw no military plan capable of wining such a war. But now they were outraged by their countries conduct in the war and were set into a moral panic, seeing brutal scenes of civilian casualties all over their TV's seemingly committed by their own troops. The war was now seen as a shameful one and the government was seen to be at fault, seemingly forcing many young men to their death or to committed the atrocities they saw on their TV screens. It seemed now that the American people had no belief in its own government, which was such a dramatic change for a people, which were so obedient as a nation in the previous decade
"For the first time in modern history the outcome of a war is seemed destined to be determined not on the battlefield but on the printed page and, above all, on the television screen" (Robert Elegant of the Los Angeles times)
The media had created many myths about the war in Vietnam, many of which were damaging to the American forces abroad and government officials at home a like. But there are many facts and figures, which suggest the media was not wholly truthful or did not give out the all the facts in its reports. One myth was that most American soldiers in Vietnam were drug addicts, and guilt ridden because of their involvement in the war and deliberately used cruel and inhumane tactics.
The truth according to the Westmoreland papers was that 91% of Vietnam veterans say they were glad they served, and 74% said they would serve again even when knowing he outcome of the war. It is important to point out that these figures and accounts come from the Westmoreland papers, who was also the leading officer in Vietnam at the time. So you must remember this fact when using them in answering this question. An other fact not picked up upon or missed out by the media was that atrocities committed by communists were so common they were barely mention, yet isolated atrocities committed by American forces produced torrents of outraged anti-war critics and the news media. The fact that all American soldiers who intentionally killed civilians received prisons sentences was also left out of media reports of the war.
The media also reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range from 50,000 to 100,000, but studies showed that 9,000is a better estimate.
"After the initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5-year post-service, rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans group." [Houk]
Also it was thought that a disproportionate amount of blacks were killed in Vietnam. In fact 86% of men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, and only 12.5% were black.
"Black fatalities in Vietnam amounted to 12 percent of those killed in the war- a figure proportional to the number of black people in the U.S population and lower at the close of the war" ("all that we can be" by Charles Moskos and John Sibley Butler)
Another famous story from the media during the war was the 'girl in the photo', a picture of a naked girl running from a burning village and herself burnt. The story the media groups produced said that it was American bombers who bombed Trang Bang and burned Kim Phuc. The truth is that it was a stray South Vietnamese bomb dropped by a South Vietnamese plane that bombed the village, as stated by the photographer himself. What happened which lead to the photo to be misused and put with false stories of American atrocities, must be put down to other journalist which were not present who just saw the photo and were either miss informed or came to their own conclusions. To suit their preference which they believed would capture the public mood and would incite such public outcry to keep the media snowball moving at increasing pace. This follows a trend of embellished stories, by the media, to suit public mood at the time.
In conclusion the media was the catalyst, which caused the focus and escalation of the growing American dissent at the time.
The media were to a large extent responsible for the American withdrawal from, because of the poor quality of reporting which lacked in validity in its facts about events and incidents in the war. It seems with all these misreports or blatant lies, which was meant to purposely damage the image of the American fighting forces in Vietnam. There's no wonder public opinion of the war was very low in America. But the truth is that the media only sunk a slowly sinking politically based ship, public opinion of the war was already falling. The public were already starting to see through the government's political talk to see that they had no clear military plan for victory. The American media just sensationalist events to totally destroy the very political ideals which begun the war. The media caused such a moral panic in America at the time, people lost faith in its own country. The media left the country in such an outrage that its own government had to fold to public opinion.
"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the vietnam war. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic." [Nixon]
All the evidence shows that media played a major role and were a big factor in American withdrawal from Vietnam. It might also be true to say that with American support for the war, performances by America forces may have improved and the result at the end of the war may have been different. However the main underlining fact is that the America forces in Vietnam had no clear military plan to succeed in its political aims. This meant when the media begun reporting in a negative way they were merely reacting to lowering support for the war effort in Vietnam. So therefore the media cannot be held totally responsible for the American withdrawal. On the other hand we have to ask the question, would have American forces been withdraw from Vietnam without the media involvement against the war? The answer, firstly we will never know for certain. However we can almost certainly say that public support for the war would have largely stayed high throughout the war, this means that the pressure on the armed forces and American government wouldn't have appeared. This stops public disillusionment with the war and American government. With none of the these factors in place the American forces may have had time to adapt to the type of warfare and terrain and also, solve the behavioural and discipline problems they were having which caused some of the media attention the war attracted. From this information you can see that it favourable suggests that America could have continued fighting in Vietnam, which may have produced a very different result.
Despite this, you still can't say that the media is totally responsible for the withdrawal of American fighting forces in Vietnam, just because you cant see the problem doesn't means its not there. Also there is a major issue with that theory of what if there was no negative media coverage on the war? The problems is whether the American forces could have adapted and solved their problems? So therefore the only defiant thing you can say is that although the media was a major contributor but not totally responsible for the American withdrawal from Vietnam.
