Describe the media coverage of the Vietnam War and its effect.
Describe the media coverage of the Vietnam War and its effect. Vietnam was the ‘first media war’, the first war fought on TV. During the Korea War, audience and technology were still very limited. In 1950, only 9% of homes had television. By 1966 93% of homes in America owned televisions. This led to constant media coverage of the war; every night news channels brought the ‘horror of war’ into people’s living rooms. In August 1965 , TV coverage showed US marines on a ‘Zippo raid’ burning the village of Cam Ne. In 1968, during the Tet Offensive, viewers saw a colonel of the SVA execute one of his captives in a Saigon Street. However, very little blood and gore was shown, less than ¼ of film reports showed dead or wounded. Only during the Tet Offensive, when the war entered urban areas did its suffering and destruction appear regularly on TV. Most of the emphasis was on the ‘American Soldier’ and so coverage of Vietnam politics and the Vietnamese was little. Similarly, Vietnamese atrocities were unseen as it was too dangerous for them to be there so they presented a bias view. As withdrawals came and morale declined, the tone of the reporting changed. Divisions over the war received increasing airtime and the anti-war movement was more accepted as a legitimate political movement. Walter Cronkite a famous US anchorman, in a report in 1968 summarising the Tet
Why the USA should have not have been involved in Vietnam
Describe why the USA should not have not been involved in Vietnam. The first reason that the USA got involved in Vietnam was to help the French who were re-occupying Indo-China. At first they were supplying the French with financial help and advisers, but soon after its own forces got sent in. The French got defeated but the US army remained in South Vietnam. They were trying to defeat the Vietcong and believed that their excellent government and an efficient, large-scale war would do that. One reason the USA should not have gotten involved was because they were there mainly to prevent the Domino theory taking place. They wanted to stop communism from taking over the country, which they feared was going to happen under the influence of Ho Chi Minh (Leader of the nationalist party). The USA was scared that it would be influenced like China, and worse, start a trend spreading to the surrounding countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and more) and then the whole of South-Asia would be a bloc corrupted by communism. They should not have gotten involved because they had no proof. Furthermore, it was predominantly a civil war, and would have been over more quickly with much less bloodshed had the USA not interfered.Many non-communists in Vietnam opposed the Southern government, because it was so corrupt and so oppressive. They chose Ho Chi Minh as their leader not because he had
Why did Americas involvement in the Vietnam War become increasingly unpopular with the American people?
Why did America’s involvement in the Vietnam War become increasingly unpopular with the American people? By 1968, the war was a stalemate. The USA could not defeat the Vietcong and in turn, the Vietcong, as shown by the Tet Offensive, could not drive out the USA. However, American public opinion could. In August 1965, 61% of the public thought that America had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam in view of developments made since they had entered. However this figure drastically dropped to only 28% in May 1971, showing a stark reversal of public opinion. This could have been caused by a number of reasons; the most important being the power of the media at home. Within five years, President Lyndon Johnson marked the loss of the Vietnam War by announcing that he would not only withdraw from Vietnam but he would also not stand for re-election, only five years after the supposed victory in the Tet Offensive, which shows just how pivotal support at home is in order to win a war. By 1968 the war effort was being undermined on the Home Front because not only did it not appear as if America was not winning the war, but it did not appear to be fighting for a very just cause. Public opinion about the war was strongly affected by the media coverage of the war which the government at this time made no official attempt to censor. The Vietnam War is regarded as the
Why did America lose the War in Vietnam?
Why did America lose the War in Vietnam In America, the Tet Offensive was deemed a huge success in preventing the Vietnamese from rising up in 1968. However, within five years, President Lyndon Johnson had announced that he was withdrawing from Vietnam and would not stand for re-election. This stark reversal in fate could have been caused by a number of reasons; the most important being that the Americans did not succeed politically or militarily in Vietnam. The reason for this was both the internal and external cost the war had on America. The internal elements are to do with the fact that the United States lost the public support for the war because of the number of casualties, mistaken government policies and the activist of the anti-war movement. The external costs have to do with the nature of the war itself which required guerrilla tactics which the soldiers were not trained in and the mistaken assumptions that the United States carried into the war. These assumptions included the American notion that they were fighting against Communism, obeying the idea of the domino theory, rather that the independent struggle by the Vietnamese which it actually was, and it was for this reason that America lost the war in Vietnam. One reason why America lost the war was that the soldiers carried with them strong preconceptions on how to fight; fierce head on battles with a clear
An Outline of the Vietnam War
Vietnam Essay When Vietnam became involved in a Guerilla War against France in 1946, the USA gave the French over $1 billion over the course of the 8 year war to aid them and to stop it's fear of the 'Domino Theory' becoming a reality. However, despite the financial support, the Vietnam won. The peace talks for this war were held in Geneva. These resulted in the country being split along the 17th parellel. The North was a communist republic controlled by Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh (a resistance group established in the 19th century to protect Vietnam against foreign attack) and the South was a capitalist republic lead by President Diem who was being backed by the USA. It was planned that after 2 years an election would be held to unite the country however due to Diem's harsh rule, many of the South Vietnamese supported Minh; this meant that the elections would turn Vietnam communist in 1957. This worried the USA who then forbid the South Vietnamese people to take part in the vote. This make them more bitter toward the South Vietnamese government but the USA continue sending weapons and money to support it. This lead to the National Liberation Front (NLF) (known as the Vietcong to the government' being established by South Vietnamese communists to fight back against the government. In response to this emergence, President Kennedy sent 10,000 US advisors to help the South
The US lost the Vietnam War because its tactics and military strategy were wrong. How far do you agree?
The US lost the Vietnam War because it’s tactics and military strategy were wrong. How far do you agree. I do not agree to this statement to a certain extent. There are multiple examples of USA failing because of their own unpopular tactics did affect them a little. The Vietnam’s guerrilla tactics were based on sabotage and sudden ambustion. For example, raiding enemies camp site, retreat when enemy attack, attack when enemy is tired and follow when enemy retreat. USA enemy is tired and follow when enemy retreat. USA chose to use advance technology against their oppositions. They used excessive amount of air force and bombs. Used over the amount of bombs used during world war two. They also used chemical weapons such as agent orange in country sides where communist would hide. But such tactics were not welcome by other side. The US citizens were disgusted and anti-war protest were everywhere. More people were turning over to support Ho Chi Minh and Vietcong. The Tet Offensive incident in January 1968. When North Vietnam attacks Saigon during a festival. The USA killed fifty thousand communist. For short term is appears that US won the situation but for long term Vietnam benefitted more especially when people in US didn’t even support their own country and a lot of anti-war protest going on. President Johnson admitted his failure and started a new election. The new
How effective were the US tactics of search and destroy and defoliation in the Vietnam War?
How effective were the US tactics of “search and destroy” and “defoliation” in the Vietnam War? Introduction -> In the Vietnam War the US army believed that if Vietnam would become communist countries like Cambodia, Thailand and Laos would follow proving their “Domino Theory” correct. Their main aim was to get the North Vietnamese people to surrender. They assisted the South fight the North, so their military had to come up with methods to defend themselves from the Viet Cong; who used their own guerilla tactics. Tactics such as defoliation and search and destroy were the most commonly used, and are the most famous today. The US military were being affected psychologically so badly by the Viet Cong’s tactics, that they had to come up with a way to overcome it. Search and Destroy -> US Commander General Westmoreland was the one who developed the Search and Destroy tactic as bombing could not defeat the Viet Cong. These raids would be launched from helicopters so they could then descend on villages and destroy any Viet Cong forces they found or were informed about. Even though this method would sometimes kill Viet Cong soldiers it was not always accurate and caused many unnecessary problems. They would send out inexperienced soldiers who would then fall into traps because they were not paying attention, innocent villagers and civilians were massacred and most
Why did the USA fail in Vietnam?
Why did the USA fail in Vietnam? US military tactics in Vietnam The tactics and military strategies used the USA were simply not working. They were extremely ineffective in tackling the Viet Cong and at times actually made the situation worse. Their heavy bombing campaign, otherwise known as ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’, started on the 7th of February 1965. These bombings over Vietnam rarely killed Viet Cong soldiers and only slowed them down and caused a lot of the civilians to start helping the Viet Cong as the American bombs had already ruined their lives. It is estimated that it cost the USA $400 thousand dollars to kill just one Viet Cong soldier. Search and destroy missions also usually ended up with civilians being killed. The experience of the Viet Cong and the inexperience of the American soldiers The Viet Cong guerrilla tactics were very effective against the American soldiers. They used ambushes, booby traps and after fighting just hid with the peasants in villages. Their fighting destroyed the American soldiers’ morale; generally the Viet Cong were much more experienced in fighting in the jungles as they had also fought the French and the Japanese. Whereas many of the American soldiers were new and were drafted in so had little to no experience of fighting, this was not helped by the fact that they also had extremely low morale. There was also a one-year
Analyse and evaluate three representations of history: Protests against the Vietnam War
Representation 1 is a text extract from the book The Vietnam War written by Douglas Willoughby and published in 2001. While representation 2 is a cartoon that gives insight into anti-war protests, it was created by John Fischetti and published during the Vietnam War. On the other hand, representation 3 is a song by Country Joe and the Fish called ‘I feel like I’m fixin to die Rag’ and it was released in 1967. As historians, it is important to decide which representation best helps understand the way in which the people in the USA reacted to the Vietnam War. To help decide which is the best, three criteria could be used – comprehensiveness, objectivity and accuracy – to evaluate the representations. When looking at comprehensiveness we can see that representation 1 offers an overview into the anti-war movement; it tells of the growth of the movement from the start of the war with “the first protest against US involvement…in New York in 1963” through to the end with the movement lasting into the 1970s. The representation mentions different types of protests such as teach-ins, sit-ins, peace rallies and draft dodging as well as including some of the different types of people that protested such as students, veterans and Christians. Representation 1 appears well researched and has detail evident in the key dates, facts and statistics, “By the end of 1969,
Evaluate the effectiveness of Diem's regime politically, economically and socially
Evaluate the effectiveness of Diem's regime politically, economically and socially Ngo Dinh Diem previously unknown in government became president on 7th July 1954. He was a catholic president controlling a population whose faith was a blend of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Prior to the conclusion of Geneva conference, France was the autocratic empire of Vietnam previously dictating Vietnam's cultural and political ideals. When France ceased to rule soon after the Geneva conference of 1954, America came in to help stop the spread of communism introducing President Diem, a strong catholic and anti-communist who was there to integrate US ideals such as democracy, civil rights and a representative government. South Vietnam soon became hit with these principles yet people did not know how to correspond to such a new way of life. This was one of the first problems Diem had to face when weighing up his attributes as president of South Vietnam. Diem, an authentic nationalist, ran the south with brutal and ruthless tyranny. Diem was expected by America to rule South Vietnam as an inspired 20th Century leader and because so did not gain much support by the local people. In attempt to satisfy everyone, being Americas and Vietnam's values and expectations, Diem achieved very little. Socially he spread dissatisfaction among the general population by only focusing and favouring the