Television's Role in the Vietnam War
A Bit of Context
The Vietnam War was a military conflict that took place in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It began on the 1st of November 1955 and ended when Saigon fell the 30th of April 1975. The war was fought between North Vietnam, supported by the Viet Cong and other communist allies, and South Vietnam, backed by the U.S and other anti-communist countries. The South and the U.S relied on extreme firepower and air superiority whereas the North focused on a more traditional, conventional style of warfare. The U.S were involved in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of their wider strategy of containment, en effort to stop the spread of communism around the world. U.S involvement in the war increased starting in 1960, with troop levels tripling in 1961, and then again tripling again in 1962. The most troops the U.S ever had involved in the Vietnam War was in 1968, at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this U.S troops finally started getting withdrawn. On the 15th of August 1973 all U.S troops were withdrawn from Vietnam. By the end of the war, in April 1975, when Saigon was captured by the north, approximately 1 million to 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and citizens were killed, 200,000-300,000 Cambodians were killed, 20,000 - 200,000 Laotians had died, and 58,220 U.S soldiers had died.
Television's Introduction to War
The horrors of war entered the homes of Americans for the first time ever during the Vietnam War. Whenever they could Americans would turn on the television and watch a Vietnamese village getting pillaged, or a Vietnamese child getting burned to death, or a fellow American coming home in a body bag, at lunch, during breaks, after school, during dinner. Although this was gruesome Americans liked it because they felt like they too were at war. At the beginning of the war television coverage supported the U.S soldier but after a few years of war reporters and journalists starting focusing on the atrocities American soldiers were committing on the Vietnamese people. Rarely though, did they talk about the horrible things Vietnamese soldiers were doing to Americans. So American people would go home at night and watch their fellow neighbors murdering and torturing Vietnamese people. This made it so that people's support of Americas involvement in the war was decreasing day by day.
Television's Rise
In 1950, only 9 percent of American homes owned a television. By 1966, 93 percent of Americans homes owned a television. In the mid-1960's the T.V was considered to be the most important and most trusted source of news for Americans and the most powerful influence on public opinion, and this is true to this day. As more and more Americans starting owning televisions, more people started getting their news from television instead of the newspaper. The Roper Organization for the Television Information Office conducted a survey from 1964 until 1972 demonstrating the growth of television. They asked people where they got most of their news from. In 1964, 58 percent answered television, 56 percent newspaper, 26 percent radio, and 8 percent magazines. In 1972, 64 percent said television, and the percentage of people that said newspaper dropped to under 50 percent. This means that as the Vietnam War dragged on more Americans starting watching it on the television rather then reading it on the newspaper. In the same survey they also asked which medium of media they trusted the most. In 1972, 48 percent of the people said television, while only 21 percent said newspaper. To the extent that Walter Cronkite, the CBS news anchor, was often called the "most trusted man in America" during the Vietnam War. I think this is because Americans felt like they too were at war when watching it on the television so the television news would capture their attention more then newspapers. All this made it so that the biased news anchors had an influence on the view Americans had on the war.
How Television Changed it All
Because at the time there was no military censorship the atrocities of the war were being recorded by journalists who were allowed to go into Vietnam with the soldiers. By 1967 90% of the news on the television was the Vietnam War and every night approximately 50 million people would tune in to watch. Like I said earlier support for Americas involvement in the war was decreasing as the war went on but the real turning point for Americans was in Late January 1968, during the Tet Offensive. Although many people at the time didn't know this at the time Tet was actually a U.S victory. The North Vietnamese did indeed destroy over a hundred South Vietnamese cities but the amount of casualties the North Vietnamese received during Tet made it a U.S victory. However television portrayed it as a brutal defeat for the Americans. After the Tet Offensive media repeatedly said that the U.S was unable to win the war. But this is what the media said, not once did the military say this. Even "the most trusted man in America", Walter Cronkite, said "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To say that we are mired in a bloody stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion". After the Tet Offensive coverage of the war was almost always negative. In a study taken a few years later it was shown that journalists' stories before Tet were described 68 percent of the time as a victory for the Americans, 28 percent of the time as a loss, and 2 percent of the time inconclusive. After Tet, 44 percent of the battles were deemed victories, 32 percent defeats, and 24 percent of the time inconclusive. All this negative coverage had an immense impact and influence on politicians and especially the public. Americans would depend on television for their image of the war and after the Tet Offensive their image of the war was Americans getting ravaged, this made it so that most Americans withdrew their support of the war.
Conclusion
By the end of the 1960's Americans' opinion on the war was not good; they no longer supported the continuation of Americas involvement in the war and this was mostly because of the way the media, especially the television, portrayed the war. Not only did every day Americans no longer support the war, many politicians didn't either. This led to several big revolts and protests against the U.S government during the war. The government felt immense pressure from the American people by 1970 and this pressure the government felt I think is what led to the withdrawal of American soldiers in 1973.