Vietnam War

“To what extent did the American media influence the result of the Vietnam War.”

Wars that last more than 10 years would be considered as a very long time, especially for the families that wait for their young men to return without knowing that they are still alive or not. The medias or any news about the war would be very important to everyone waiting in the country, bringing joy, sorrow or hope to them. Vietnam War extended for 16 years from 1959-1975 until all the problems were to solutions which the media played an important role during the war. The result was significance that the Americans lost the war and it brought to the question “how”. To a large degree that the American media influence the outcome of the war. The Americans send their troops across the globe to Vietnam which is new location for battle field which caused many concern to the U.S. military, government and their citizens. However the Americans were able to find the solution to this problem through the media coverage that would report everything to their people even if it not true.

Vietnam War was the first “television war”. During the 1960s, television was a new kind of media that was booming all around the world which entertain people with many programs and news update. According to Michael Arlen in 1965, it was called “living room war” as the media start to play an important role reporting the biggest story television news to the U.S. people. People can just feel like they were in the situation just in their living room. Even though radios and newspaper can give people the same information, still television was what people found more interested in. The U.S. used the advantage from television to handle many problems with the anti-war organizations. After World War II many countries realized the harmful effect and violence of war, therefore there were many anti-war organizations cooperating globally such as the United Nations. People don’t want anymore war and it is the time for them to live peacefully. However, Vietnam War was inevitable as the U.S. tried to stop the spreading of communism around Southeast Asia. It is necessary to protect countries from communism before the conflict get bigger and it would be much more difficult if the U.S. have more enemies. The media made big effort to influence the Americans to believe that they did no wrong going to Vietnam and help the South-Vietnamese, more importantly people think that fighting with the Vietcong would just be an easy walkover and bring a quick end to the war. After all, the media can’t deny reality with the film of civilians being killed and US troops deadly fire from the Vietcong. This led to big shock to the Americans bringing horror to people in their living room. There were often argument about the way how the war was reported in an unrestricted way by television that would eventually lose public report. This could affect the war situation, so the many US commanders had to keep an eye on how their decisions were introduced to the people on the evening news.

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Many people became persuaded in the anti-war movement claiming to withdrawal the US army back to the states. As the years in war kept extending the anti-war movement have more supporter to them. Films and photographs of people dying, bombed schools and hospitals made people think they made no good in helping South Vietnam. The DRV device was one of the technologies which kept the US media informed. It was first used in World War II with the ability to count the number of death in wartime. The DRV was very effective to the anti-war movement in US and the rest of the world. Pictures had a huge impact to US. One famous picture which illustrates 9-year-old girl Kim Phuc escaping US attack which is bombing her village. She was partially burned and the boy next to her is her brother who lost an eye from the attack. This picture was very significance to many anti-war movements. Not only the scene of children suffering was point out, but from the information that the kids were South Vietnamese made the Americans reputation looked worst. The truth that this picture reveals was that the kids were attacked by their own side. Even though US President Nixon tried to dismiss it as a fake, but the situation was proved by the British television news team. This brought the US down to a certain level from the point that they were attacking the people who they were supposed to protect.

“Compare and Contrast the results of the First and Second World Wars”

World War I and World War II were the two of the most important events in the twentieth century. The wars had impact many countries all over the world. The two wars were related to each other in such a short period of time. The results towards the end of both wars were important as it made many difference to the world.

The result of World War I and World War II had different ending. World War I ended by the Treaty of Versailles with many problems that were followed which led to the beginning of World War II. World War II ended after the death of Hitler with Allies victory and the surrender of Japanese due to the atomic bomb. After World War I ended Germany was to blame for the cause to the start of the war. There were many pressure going to Germany and they have to be responsible for the war. The Kaiser had to fled away to Netherlands and never to be in power again. The Allied powers put so much pressure to Germany because they don’t want Germany to be able to rise back in power again. The Treaty of Versailles punished and humiliated Germany to such a degree that it all led to the rise of Nazis and start of World War II. World War I ended in a way that it made Germany needed to revenge back. World War II ended and leaving nothing for the Axis powers to revenge. The big difference is the peace cooperation after both wars. The League of Nations which was established by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I had failed terribly. They were many problems in the organization itself, plus the big powers countries such as Britain and United States didn’t join the organization. The peace cooperation failed and the start of World War II was almost inevitable. After World War II the peace cooperation that was established was the United Nations. The organization successfully kept many countries out of war and keeping the world in peace

until now.

The causalities difference was a big deal for both wars. World War I had modern technologies such as machine guns and artillery, but they still used old tactics such as infantry charge which resulted in stalemate and great slaughter. “Should I have resigned rather than agree to this slaughter of brave men at the Battle of Somme?” (David Lloyd George). However, the developing of technology made World War II caused more causalities. Submarines and tanks became larger, faster and more powerful. Naval ships also became larger and more powerful, and the introduction of the aircraft carrier may have been the most important development of the war. The most destructive weapon that was introduced was the atomic bomb. During World War II, over 60 millions people had died, including 20 millions soldiers and 40 millions civilians. The Second World War was more of a total war than the first, many civilians were killed. Many civilians died because of disease, starvation, massacres, bombing and deliberate genocide. Not only the difference in causalities was from the developed technologies, but there were both wars going on in Europe and in the Pacific.

While both world wars involved many of the same combatants there were many more differences than similarities. The First World War set the stage for the Second World War. The most important difference between the world wars was their long term impact.