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Where is Vietnam?Where is Vietnam?

HISTORY

Conflict Between France & Vietnam

• The Vietnam War grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. – In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, a

defeated France was forced to leave Vietnam.– Nationalist forces under the direction of General Vo

Nguyen Giap defeated the allied French troops at the remote mountain outpost of Dien Bien Phu in the northwest corner of Vietnam.

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The Geneva Peace Accords• The Geneva Peace Accords,

signed by France and Vietnam in the summer of 1954, provided for the temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with national elections in 1956 to reunify the country.

• In the North, a communist regime, supported by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, set up its headquarters in Hanoi under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh.

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A New Nation in the South• Using SEATO for political cover, the Eisenhower

administration helped create a new nation in southern Vietnam.

• In 1955, with the help of massive amounts of American military, political, and economic aid, the government of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) was born.

• The following year, Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunchly anti-Communist figure from the South, won a dubious election that made him president of South Vietnam

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The Domino Theory• American policymakers developed the “Domino

Theory” as a justification for the involvement. This theory stated, “If South Vietnam falls to the Communist, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India and Pakistan would also fall like dominos. The Pacific Islands and even Australia could be at risk”.

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South Vietnam Under Diem• Diem claimed that his newly created

government was under attack from Communists in the north.

• In late 1957, with American military aid, Diem began to counterattack. – He used the help of the CIA (through

Operation Phoenix) to identify those who sought to bring his government down and arrested thousands.

– He passed a repressive series of acts known as Law 10/59 that made it legal to hold suspected Communists in jail without bringing formal charges.

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The National Liberation Front• The Communists

supported the creation of a broad-based united front to help mobilize southerners in opposition to the government in South Vietnam.

• On December 20, 1960, the National Liberation Front (NLF) was On December 20, 1960, the National Liberation Front (NLF) was born.born.– It brought together Communists and non-Communists in an umbrella It brought together Communists and non-Communists in an umbrella

organization that had limited, but important goals organization that had limited, but important goals – Anyone could join as long as they opposed Ngo Dinh Diem and wanted to Anyone could join as long as they opposed Ngo Dinh Diem and wanted to

unify Vietnam.unify Vietnam. 9

Washington White Papers• In a series of government "White

Papers," Washington insiders denounced the NLF, claiming that it was merely a puppet of Hanoi. They called it the "Viet Cong," a derogatory and slang term meaning Vietnamese Communist.

• The NLF, on the other hand, argued that it was autonomous and independent of the Communists in Hanoi and that it was made up mostly of non-Communists. Many anti-war activists supported the NLF's claims.

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NLF Successes

• This culturally-insensitive plan further alienated the peasants from the Saigon regime and produced more recruits for the NLF.

• By the summer of 1963, because of NLF successes and its own failures, it was clear that the government of South Vietnam was on the verge of political collapse.

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Buddhist Self-Immolations• Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, had

raided the Buddhist pagodas of South Vietnam, claiming that they had harbored the Communists that were creating the political instability.

• The result was massive protests on the streets of Saigon that led Buddhist monks to self-immolation.

• The pictures of the monks engulfed in flames made world headlines and caused considerable consternation in Washington.

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Military Coup• By late September, the Buddhist

protest had created such disloca-tion in the south that the Kennedyadministration supported a coup.

• In 1963, some of Diem's own generals approached the American Embassy in Saigon with plans to overthrow Diem.

• With Washington's tacit approval, Diem and his brother were captured and later killed.

• Three weeks later, President Kennedy was assassinated on the streets of Dallas.

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Escalation of the Conflict• At the time of the Kennedy and Diem assassinations,

there were 16,000 military advisers in Vietnam. – The Kennedy administration had managed to run the war

from Washington without the large-scale introduction of American combat troops.

– The continuing political problems in Saigon, however, convinced the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, that more aggressive action was needed.

After a dubious North Vietnamese raid on two U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Johnson administration argued for expansive war powers for the president.

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Attack on American Ships• In August 1964, in response to

American and South Vietnamese espionage along its coast, North Vietnam launched an attack against the C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox, two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin. – The first attack occurred on

August 2, 1964. – A second attack was supposed to have

taken place on August 4, but authorities have recently concluded that no second attack ever took place.

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Phosphorous & Napalm Bombs

• “Operation Rolling Thunder” was backed up by phosphorous and napalm bombs – the latter causing dreadful burns to thousand of innocent civilians.

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Helicopters

• Of all aircraft, the helicopter was the most useful, dropping platoons in the jungle clearings and out again. They were excellent air ambulances.

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North Vietnamese Tactics• In areas held by the NLF, the

Communists distributed the land to the peasants. (By 1973, the NLF held about half of South Vietnam.)

• Their weapons were cheap and reliable.– The AK47 assault rifle out-performed the American M16The AK47 assault rifle out-performed the American M16– The portable rocket launcher took out many US vehicles & The portable rocket launcher took out many US vehicles &

aircraft.aircraft. – They recycledThey recycled dud bombs dropped by the Americans. Deadly dud bombs dropped by the Americans. Deadly

dummy-traps could inflict huge damage on young American dummy-traps could inflict huge damage on young American conscripts! conscripts! 18

Tunnel Complexes

• The Vietnamese built large tunnel complexes such as the ones at Cu Chi near Saigon. This protected them from the bombing raids by the Americans and gave them cover for attacking the invaders.

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Search & Destroy Tactics• The United States countered with “Search and

Destroy” tactics. In areas where the NLF were thought to be operating, troops went in and checked for weapons. If they found them, they rounded up the villagers and burned the villages down.

• This often alienated the peasants from the American/South Vietnamese cause. – As one marine said – “If they weren’t Vietcong before we got

there, they sure as hell were by the time we left”. – The NFL often helped the villager’s re-build their homes and

bury their dead.

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The Tet Offensive• By 1968, things had gone from bad to worse for

the Johnson administration. In late January, North Vietnam and the NLF launched coordinated attacks against major southern cities.

• These attacks, known as the Tet Offensive, were designed to force the Johnson administration to the bargaining table.

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The My Lai Massacre• A serious blow to U.S. credibility came with the

exposure of the My Lai massacre (March 1968).• Hushed up at the time and only discovered by a

tenacious journalist, this involved the killing of 400 men, women and children by US troops.

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Vietnamization

• Nixon's secret plan involved a process called “Vietnamization.” This strategy brought American troops home while increasing the air war over North Vietnam and relying more on the South Vietnamese army for ground attacks.

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Campus Protests & Shootings

• The intense bombing campaigns and intervention in Cambodia in late April 1970 sparked intense campus protests all across America.

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Anti-War Sentiments

• As the deaths mounted and Americans continued to leave for Southeast Asia, the Johnson administration was met with the full weight of American anti-war sentiments.

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The Fall to Communism• From March 1973 until the fall of

Saigon on April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese army tried desperately to save the South from political and military collapse.

• The end finally came when North Vietnamese tanks rolled south along National Highway One.

• On the morning of April 30, Communist forces captured the presidential palace in Saigon, ending the Vietnam War.

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COVERAGE of the VIETNAM WAR by the MEDIA

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Print Media

• Newspapers played a very important role in the war coverage.

• They were developed a long time back.

• American military gave the press freedom of access to combat zones.

• Many American newspapers along with others covered the war on vast basis.

Print Media

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Famous Newspapers that covered the war:• New York Times• Washington Post• Chicago Tribune• Vietnam Courier• New Haven Register• Times of IndiaMagazines like the TIME, Life, Esquire and Newsweek

had an extensive coverage done and also many cover stories on the war.

Famous Headlines

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• Hans Morgenthau, "We Are Deluding Ourselves in Vietnam," New York Times Magazine, 18 April 1965

• ‘Vietnam victory Remote Despite U.S. Aid to Diem.’-NYT, 20th Nov 1969

• SOUTH VIET NAM: The Beleaguered Man-Apr. 4, 1955 TIME magazine

• At War with War-May 18, 1970, TIME magazine

• Influential act by TIME Magazine-an edition of 242 photographs of American soldiers

Famous Headlines

• Esquire’s cover story(1966) by John Sack changed Public perception and was a landmark of New Journalism

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Magazine Coverage of Vietnam War

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Magazine Coverage of Vietnam War

The Controversial Pentagon Papers• Pentagon Papers-top secret study of the U.S.

Govt in the Vietnam War by the Dept. Of Defense, U.S.

• It was a 47 volume study made in 1967.• It was released by Daniel Ellsberg to the New

York Times in 1971.• The subsequent publishing resulted in eroding

the public support for the Vietnam War.• The article said that the Johnson Govt had

systematically lied to the public and to the Congress about a subject of national interest.

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The Controversial Pentagon Papers• It exposed the Nixon,

Kennedy and the Johnson Administration’s lies to the public.

• The papers spoke about invading Vietnam even after President Johnson’s promise of not invading Vietnam anymore.

• All these led to the withdrawal of support from the U.S. public for the Vietnam War.

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Headline:Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of

Growing U.S. Involvement – NYT Sunday, June 13, 1971

Print Coverage• War Correspondents grew in number-starting from just

8 to a 419• Two different views of media formed• Two different pictures of the conflict in Vietnam• Tradition of objective journalism- just gave the facts.• Eg.100 South Viet Soldiers Killed• Reporters blamed of insensitivity and inaccuracy• Little editorializing in the newspapers• Ap Bac Controversy-permanent divide between the

U.S. Govt and the news media in Vietnam• Media failed to discuss the real issues.

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Print Coverage• Had little knowledge of the history and culture of

Vietnam• Portrayed the Communists as Brutal, Cruel, Sinister• 1968 : Media criticized for misinterpreting the Tet

Offensive incident• 1969-1973 : Increasing emphasis on Vietnamization• Anti – war reports and the portrayal of war in negative

light• Eg. Kent State Riot – 4 killed; Troop Fight with students

– Chicago Tribune

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Pioneering Journalists

• Seymour Hersh – Investigative Journalist • Ann Bryan Mariano – One of the first female

combat reporters• John Sack• Ben Bradlee – Washington Post• Hubert Van Es • Peter Arnett – Associated Press• Kate Kebb• George Esper – Bureau Chief, AP

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• Reporters like David Halberstam reported war was going badly

• Media blamed for losing the war

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Broadcast

• Vietnam War is known as first television war• The great difference between the Vietnam

War and its predecessors lay not in its ways, but lay in its perception, an image that was shaped by a powerful new influence: TELEVISION

• Use of Broadcast began in WW – II

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Television

• ‘Credibility Gap’• President Kennedy’s furor – termed media as

abusing freedom of speech & called them ‘sensationalists

• In 1963, NBC and CBS doubled the length of their national news coverage (from 15 to 30 minutes)

• In the same year Americans reported that, for the first time, most of them received the majority of their news from television as compared to newspapers and magazines

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Television

• Technology kept pace during this period due to:• Steady increase in the number, size, and quality

of color television sets in American homes• Transportation time of news footage was

originally about twenty hours from Vietnam to New York

• Later was decreased dramatically with the availability of communications satellites later in the war

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Television- The Myth of Objectivity

• “Of all the myths of journalism, objectivity is the greatest” ~ ABC Commentator Bill Moyers

• “But we are professional journalists ....We are trying to reach an objective state, we are trying to be objective. We have been taught from the day we went to school, when we began to know we wanted to be journalists, integrity, truth, honesty, and a definite attempt to be objective. We try to present the news as objectively as possible, whether we like or don't like it” ~ CBS Announcer Walter Cronkite

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Television- The Myth of Objectivity

• The Fairness Doctrine• Liberalism• Infiltrates every step of the news gathering,

selection & reporting process• Powerful influence in shaping American

attitudes towards the Vietnam War

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Television- Bias in The News

• “The proposition that T.V. News is biased should be about as controversial as the law of gravity,” adding that the real question is: “How are the media biased, and what is the consequent effect on your interests and values?” - Dr. Paul Weaver, quoted from T.V. and National Defense – An Analysis of CBS News

• News was given by reporters who were not familiar with the culture, values or beliefs of Vietnam

• Hence, news reported in the T.V. Broadcasts was from the journalists’ understanding of those situations (Even though they tried to be as objective as possible)

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Television- Documentation by Research

• Dr. Ernest Lefever was an American political theorist & a foreign affairs expert

• He analyzed CBS news coverage during the final period of the American defense of South Vietnam

• He did a content analysis of network news broadcasts from 1972 and 1973 reflecting material that CBS chose to broadcast about the war during that period

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Results• United States: U.S.

involvement is wrong because the war is cruel, expensive, or senseless (254 times)

• South Vietnam: Regime is an obstacle to peace, or other criticism (89 times)

• North Vietnam: Armed Services are doing well (57 times)

• Total of 400 Broadcasts

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U.S. Media & Vietnam War

• Early 1960-64- U.S was only assisting the Saigon government in fighting communist aggression

• U.S. media followed Vietnamese press guidelines(briefing from U.S spokesperson)

• According to Press historian Clarence Wyatt, The American government had no Independent information-gathering system in Vietnam

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2 Different Pictures of Conflict

• 1-Increasingly critical of South Vietnam and Saigon government

• 2- The other was supportive of Americans (Patriotic in nature)

• ‘Credibility gap’ continued to widen as the conflict increased in scope and length

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Problem with U.S. media in Vietnam

• South Vietnamese people themselves were viewed by the media with the condescension, contempt, and disdain that characterized the American attitude towards them

• The media exhibited the “Cold War myopia, ethnocentrism, cultural bias, and racism embedded in American ideology”

• American journalists arrived in Vietnam with almost no knowledge of its culture, history, society, or language, nor did they attempt to learn.(US department of defense offered brief introductory course)

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Coverage

• Survey• Veterans view• Living room war• Tet, 1968 ( THE TURNING POINT)• Media as Watch –dog• Major coverage• Buddhist crisis• My Lai massacre

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Survey

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• Mid 1960’s - Television was considered to be the most important source of news and the most powerful influence on public opinion itself

• A series of surveys conducted by the Roper Organization for the Television Information Office from 1964 until 1972 demonstrates the growing power of television

• 1964 – 58% said television; 56%, newspapers; 26%, radio; and 8%, magazines

• 1972 - 64% said television while the number of respondents who primarily relied on newspapers dropped to 50%

• The Roper surveys mentioned above also asked respondents which medium they would trust if the media gave conflicting accounts of a story

• In 1972, 48% said television while only 21% said newspapers

Why TV over Print?• Consistently evaluated as more attention-grabbing• Interesting• Personally relevant• Emotionally involving• Visuals and personality- visual element of television

allows viewers to feel as if they are part of the action• EXAMPLE- When news programs aired images of

battles and death, Americans at home felt as if they too were in the jungles of Vietnam

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Veterans Views• Uncensored and overly negative television coverage • The horrors of war entered the living rooms of

Americans for the first time during the Vietnam War• Almost a decade in between school, work, and dinners,

the American public could watch villages being destroyed, Vietnamese children burning to death, and American body bags being sent home

• The anti-war movement at home gained increasing media attention while the U.S soldier was forgotten in Vietnam. Coverage of the war and its resulting impact on public opinion

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Living Room War

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• First war that has been fought on television were the actors are real• Impact of television made the difference• Power of television• Elements of visual drama- life and death struggles in vivid color, raw

emotions readily visible, triumphs and tragedy• The two most famous filmed sequences of the war were :Example1) The point blank execution by pistol shot to the head of a Viet Cong

prisoner during the Battle of Hue, 19682) The film of the little Vietnamese girl running naked down the road, her

clothes burned from her body by napalm from an attacking South Vietnamese plane during the 1972 Communist offensive

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Garrick Utley of Garrick Utley of NBC News NBC News

interviews U.S. interviews U.S. TroopsTroops

CBS Anchorman CBS Anchorman Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite

interviews in Hue interviews in Hue (1968)(1968)

Tet, The Turning Point• 1968 - If this event had been reported as the great allied

victory that it was, it could have significantly bolstered American confidence and undermined Hanoi's morale.

• Instead, exactly the opposite happened; it was conveyed by the American media as an Allied defeat, undermining American confidence and bolstering the North Vietnamese's morale.

• Much of this was due to the warped perceptions of the press itself

• Press and television created an aura not of victory but of defeat, which, coupled with vocal anti-war elements, profoundly influenced timid officials in Washington

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Media as watch-dog• Conscientious reporters themselves were the first to admit

that for some of their colleagues were biased• Ron Steinman, NBC's Saigon bureau chief from 1966 to

1968 described, reporters often developed egos that limited their ability to express anything other than heated excitement

• Some correspondents injected themselves too deeply into the story & became part of the story, skewing it from the inside

• During the fast-breaking Tet period, correspondents did make mistakes in their coverage

• Public support for each war had dropped inexorably whenever total U.S. casualties increased

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Major Coverage

• Buddhist crisis - The Diem government considered the foreign press as its enemy and was unwilling to communicate its side of the story effectively

• Diem’s non – supporters leaked valuable information

• My Lai would be cited as proof of a mainstream press bent on sensationalizing U.S. atrocities in Vietnam

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Negative Stories

• Tet : In reality & as portrayed• Negative Coverage of U.S. Troops• Television coverage of the massacre at My Lai

was perhaps the most damaging image for the U.S soldier's reputation

• Americans depended on television to see and understand the war

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Anti-War Feeling

• Television had changed, not the nature of war, but the perception of it.

• The media had altered public perceptions of the war

• Press Historian James Hammond’s views• Those who tended to view the media as the

source of domestic discontent• 12 years of struggle and frustration

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Censorship

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• An Information Conference was held in Honolulu in March 1965.• Censors would need jurisdiction over all communications.

Rules and regulations1. Never to reveal future plans, operations, or air strikes2. During an operation, unit designations, troop movements, and tactical deployments,

the methods, activities, and specific locations of intelligence units were to remain secret

3. The exact number and type of casualties suffered4. The number of stories and amount of ordinance delivered outside of South Vietnam;

and information on aircraft taking off for, en route to, or returning from target areas5. Amounts of ordinance or fuel on hand to support combat units

No. of Reporters• From 40 in 1964, the press corps in South Vietnam had

grown to 282 by January 1966. • Of the 282 at the beginning of the year, only 110 were

Americans. 67 were South Vietnamese, 26 Japanese, 24 British, 13 Korean, 11 French, and seven German. Of the Americans present, 72 were more than thirty-one years old, and 60 of them were over the age of thirty-six. The same was true of the 143 non-Americans

• Changes • Reporters were doing more research, conducting more

interviews, and publishing more analytical essays

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Radio

• Radio was used by the combat during the war.• American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) • Founded on the 15th August,1962 in Saigon• AFVN signals propagated to India, China,

Australia and Pakistan• AFVN sportscast included results from

professional games

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Radio• Radio used by North

Vietnamese against U.S.Troops.

• Ike Pappas recorded and played “Songs Of War” in Vietnam

• Trinh Thi Ngo also known as Hanoi Hannah urged GIs to quit the "unjust and immoral war.“

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Media Blamed for losing war• “The War in Vietnam was not lost on the

battlefields of Vietnam. It was lost in the editorial rooms of great newspapers …” - Former President Nixon

• Due to the coverage shown by the media, most American public believed that U.S. involvement in Vietnam was not just a mistake, but “immoral”

• It was claimed by the American Government that there was a shift of national sentiment from strongly supportive of the war effort to becoming anti war altogether

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Media Blamed for losing war

• “One wonders if in the future a democracy which has uninhibited television coverage in every home will ever be able to fight a war, however just & fair.... The full brutality of the combat will be there in close up and in color, and blood looks very red on the color television screen” - BBC Commentator Robin Day

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