History IA: What were American peoples responses to the Vietnam War in 1965 1971?

The way mass media influences American people 

a) The popularity of television in US during this period

In 1950, only 9% of homes owned a television. By 1966, this figure rose to 93%. A series of surveys conducted by the Roper Organization for the Television Information Office from 1964 until 1972 demonstrates the growing power of television: With multiple answers allowed, respondents were asked from which medium they "got most of their news". In 1964, 58% said television; 56%, newspapers; 26 %, radio; and 8 %, magazines. By 1972, 64 % said television while the number of respondents who primarily relied on newspapers dropped to 50 %. In 1972, 48 % said television while only 21 % said newspapers.

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b) Change in news on screen

Support began to decrease in the fall of 1967, but the major turning point in television's coverage of the war occurred during the Tet Offensive in late January 1968. Although the offensive was taken as US victory, on the screen, what American people saw was a brutal defeat for US. The percent of television stories in which journalists editorialized news jumped from 5.9 % before Tet to 20 % in the two months after. Though initial reports stated that the operation killed 100 enemy soldiers in March 1968, it was revealed a year later that First Lt. William Calley and his taskforce had killed up to 350 South Vietnamese civilians. The negative coverage of the war influenced both politicians and the public because of the mass media’s power especially in television and newspaper.

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C. Evaluation of Sources

Two sources used were:

Steve Phillips, “The Cold War”, Heinemann, England and Wales, 2001

The book above is a history text which covers all events during the Cold War period from 1941-1990. The origin of the source is from many documents including: war photos, small pieces of soldiers’ diary, newspapers...synthesized by Steve Phillips – an American historian. The purpose of the book is for student of history, this purpose is claimed at the cover page of the book: “this book was an “ideal book” for students who want to learn about the causes and development of the Cold war in Europe, Asian from 1941 to 1990”. The value of this book is likely to be the accuracy of information inside it because it is a thoroughly synthesis of Steve Phillips. Furthermore, Steve Philips is a famous historian from College of Liberal Art with a innumerable historic books so that the sources can be highly reliable. In addition, he is head of Asian War department of college, who must have excellent experience about collecting information, filter it and writing book. However, there are still some limitations. The fact the author of this book doesn’t live at that time so he can’t witness all events that occurred in the period from 1960 – 1970. Moreover, he is an American, inevitably, he can bias about national history when talking about the face of America in Vietnam War. Overall, this a good source because the information inside the book is really concise with full analysis and evidence.

Zuzana Hodboďová, “The Vietnam War, Public Opinion and American Culture”, 2008

This journal is also a history text which presents fully about the Vietnam War and its effect on both Vietnam and USA.  The origin of the source is from many sources which is collected and filtered by Zuzana Hodboďová – a Czech student of Masaryk University. The purpose of the book is to complete a diploma for a course and under Czech student’s perspective; the book will assess Vietnam equally to the USA because in Vietnam War, Czech is a country that doesn’t involve in any activities.  The value of the book an analysis of cause and effect of Vietnam War on 2 aspects: public opinion and American culture. Moreover, in this history text, the student access many sources and evidences which make his synthesis clearer, his analysis more accurate. However, in this journal, there are some limitations. Besides, he can’t witness what happened during the period from 1961-1975, as the position of student, there’s a lack in experience and objectivity.

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D. Analysis

In an overview, the anti-war movement in US is unavoidable when the truth about the war was unmasked under mass media’s power and this movement covers most of social class in US.

Student is the social class that has a good approach to the knowledge. The foundation of student organizations such as Students for Democratic Society or Student non-violent Coordinating Committee which protest the war is an obvious result for Government’s bad policies. The event in April 17 attracted 25000 people showed the mighty protest waves inside America. The appeal of SNCC in 1966 suggests that American people began to realize the immorality of Vietnam War and they step by step stimulate American men not to participate in this useless war because the war not only caused damage to Vietnam but it also brought back bad influences to American families (men sacrificed in the war).

Women don’t often voice their objection in such event, but in the Vietnam War, the involvement of women contributed to the negative responses of Americans. Therefore, through the very first participation of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was compared to the confirmation of the stupidity of a policy based on traditional and outdated masculine values of strength and heroism. The action of Helga Alice Herz and her letter notice about the anger of women in general case.

Low percentage of black support the war and Muhammad’s saying revealed the failure of Government in fulfilling its citizens’ rights. US system had failed the black before the Vietnam War highlighted issues of prejudice. Black Americans occupies a quite high percentage in American society, and the evidences above have shown the disappointment of Black Americans about those who led their life to the poverty. If a country wants to win a war, it must receive the support from the vast majority of its citizen because they would be willing to go to the battle field for country’s honor but in this case US failed to get this.

With the change in industrial worker’s opinion about Vietnam War, the labor force went straight to the point that they wanted the withdrawal. Like other classes, they saw the immoral and the meaningless war which were causing the pressure to the national economy. The event in 1966 about Trade Union Division of SANE is a result of the burdens that the Vietnam War was imposing on working class Americans became more and more evident, including within the AFL-CIO Executive Council. From this point, the most obvious thing is that US had given all it had to the war that didn’t bring back to US any benefits and it is clearly unacceptable to workers who had to work hard to pull national economy up.

By the mid-1960's, television was considered to be the most important source of news for the American public, and, possibly, the most powerful influence on public opinion itself. The level of popularity of television in US also contributed to the extent of anti-war movement. By the percentage shown in evidence, we can see that more and more Americans turned to television as their primary source for news. Television is "consistently evaluated as more attention-grabbing, interesting, personally relevant, emotionally involving, and surprising" because of two elements: visuals and personality. When news programs aired images of battles and death, Americans at home felt as if they too were in the jungles of Vietnam. Additionally, intense visuals helped explain the complex nature of war to Americans who could not understand the military's technical language. Anchors and reporters quickly became trusted, household names because the public turned to them every night for the day's information.

Based on that advantage, most of journalist changed the information that they witnessed. This action proved that even mass media part also wants to end this war and shows its negative responses. Journalists utilized the power of mass media especially television to transfer their opinions about this inhumane war to American, increase the Americans’ anger and cause pressure to Government.

 

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E. Conclusion

With all above evidences and analysis, we can conclude that what American people responded to their Government about Vietnam War is the negative attitude that is clearly showed in the anti-war movement. Both sources contributed to each aspect of the protest: American social classes and mass media. This wave of negative response of American became the most successful antiwar movement in U.S. history. Finally, this anti – war movement contributed its small part to the withdrawal of the USA.

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F. List of Sources

Primary:

Phillips Steve, The Cold War, Heinemann, 2001

Hodboďová Zuzana, The Vietnam War, Public Opinion and American Culture, Masaryk University, 2008.

Young B. Marilyn, The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990, Harper Perennial, 1991.

Secondary:

CNN, Series video Cold War, 2012

Neuman, Just, Crigler, 1992

, Antiwar Activism and Emerging Feminism in the Late 1960s: The Times They Were A'Changing, ATC 85, March-April 2000.

, LABOR AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT: International And Historical Perspectives Panel, April 29th and 30th, 2010, 6:00 – 7:30 PM DEPAUL UNIVERSITY, SAC 154.

, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Position Paper: On Vietnam (time unknown)

, Television Coverage of the Vietnam War and the Vietnam Veteran (time unknown)

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