U.S. news media and the Vietnam War

The role of media in outbreaks of news played a vital role in dramatic shifts of opinion during the Vietnam War. In the beginning of the war, the U.S. media was not interested in covering stories out of Vietnam with only the most breaking news covered. After the death of civilians against President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam, the U.S. media began to take more interest in the war. Journalists began arriving in Vietnam to be the first to cover any stories that emerged.

As the war went on, the U.S. media began to change its main source of information. Journalists began to focus more on research, interviews and analytical essays to obtain information instead of press conferences, official news releases and reports of official proceedings. With an increase in American households that obtained a television set, more and more citizens were able to keep up with the war. Although it was useful to have all information acquired during the war, the media played a huge role in what the American people saw and believed. Journalists that visited Vietnam during the war were not interested in the culture of Vietnam or any aspect of the way of life practiced in that area. Instead, they only focused on the negative and reinforced the American people with the worst of Vietnam. The media played the information to look like Vietnam was in the wrong and the only one at fault.

The Federal government of the United States was painting one picture of the war, while the media was painting another. The government made the war to look more glorious and optimistic than reality. Once media's view on the war was accessible to citizens, they began to see a difference in the way the war was being portrayed. The media allowed the audience to see the reality of the war and what was going on politically. US citizens felt betrayed by their government for painting a wrongful picture of the war. The people felt they weren't being told the full truth, which ultimately led to an increase in public pressure to end the war.

Before the 1960s, the U.S. media had no interest in Vietnam. American journalists followed events only when breaking news happened in the region. Those who covered the beginning of the war in Vietnam were reporting only the rise of communism in the country. The official agencies that handled the press in Vietnam during the early years had little control over what the reporters wrote. The French colonial government set up a system of censorship, but correspondents who traveled to Singapore or Hong Kong said what they wanted. American reporters who went to Vietnam at the beginning of the 1960s were reporting the story, while the government in America was telling them to get on the field.

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