Why did Americas involvement in the Vietnam War become increasingly unpopular with the American people?

The significance of media coverage in public perception of the war is very obvious in the Tet offensive. The offensive had some initial successes for the Vietnamese because American intelligence failed to detect the build-up of enemy troops. One of the most famous events during this offensive was the infiltration of the American embassy in the South Vietnamese capital Saigon by a 15-man suicide squad, all of whom were easily killed. A reporter at the time in the embassy which was regarded as the safest place in Vietnam saw this as it was happening and this crisis was viewed by millions around the globe. After confident predictions of an imminent victory many Americans were shocked to see footage of Communist fighters in the grounds of the American embassy which created a ‘credibility gap’ between the official message and what was seen happening on television. Famously Walter Cronkite, the most influential US anchorman said “What the hell is going on? I thought we were winning this war”.

The introduction of draft of new soldiers further increased opposition, and many burnt their draft cards. Black and other minorities, who made up the largest proportion of the American army, did not want to fight ‘for something that they don’t have themselves’, especially since many white people got out of the draft by going to college. Famously Muhammad Ali was prosecuted for refusing to be drafted and said, “No Vietcong ever called me nigger”. Also the shooting of Vietnam Veterans who were peacefully protesting outside Kent state only caused more unrest amongst the American people. Huge marches were taking place against the war, with a million people joining one in New York. Between 1960 and 1973 over 500,000 men deserted from the armed forces and in 1967 ‘Vietnam Veterans against the War’ was formed.

Particularly significant in undermining support for the war at home was the growing realisation of the brutality of the war. US troops were trained to see the enemy as not human so that they felt able to kill them. The tactic of ‘Search and Destroy’ were intended to help find Communist guerrillas hiding in villages, but often resulted in innocent civilians being attacked and having their houses and crops destroyed as collateral damage. The use of chemical defoliants was also very damaging as they were found later to be carcinogenic and America’s indiscriminate bombing seemed only to alienate the South Vietnamese rather than win other their ‘Hearts and Minds’. The most famous atrocity of the war was the massacre in the village of My Lai on March 1968. The company was told that a Vietcong battalion was hiding in the village and that any villagers found were definitely communist supporters. Despite finding no enemy fighters they destroyed the village and killed hundreds of its inhabitants. At first this massacre was kept secret and only on November 12th 1969 did the story appear in the American press after a reporter talked about the story to an officer on trial for this massacre. The reports of the massacre greatly strengthened the anti-war movement in America. This shook many Americans view of themselves as the ‘good guys’ and made them question whether America was fighting for a just cause.

In addition the $66 million a day spent by 1968 meant that President Johnson’s spending on a new ‘Great Society’ was drastically cut, and income tax rose. $900 million worth of American equipment had been destroyed however they had only done $300 million worth of damage to the North Vietnamese economy. Also the cost of the troops in Vietnam amounted to about $20 to $30 billion a year. In 1967 ‘Life Magazine’ calculated it cost $400,000 for each Vietcong guerrilla killed.

The media was the most powerful reason for America losing the war and the fact that it was uncensored meant that gruesome pictures were reported back in America which caused un-repairable damage to the war effort. This war showed definitively that if the people at home are not happy to fight, a country will never win. The power and danger of the media was shown with the recent Wikileaks scandal, showing that there is a need not to have everything out in the public.