How Did Television Affect the Vietnam Conflict?



Vietnam Questions: 1. Identify the following people or groups:_____Ho Chi Minh A. North Vietnamese army that fought the French_____Viet NimhB. South Vietnamese pro-communist army_____Viet CongC. Nationalist and Communist leader of North Vietnam2. The President of the U.S., Harry Truman, believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, then the rest of Asia would become communist. This was called the—a. Truman doctrineb. Domino Theoryc. Containment Resolution4. What incident convinced President Lyndon Johnson to send troops to Vietnam?a. the murder of the leader of South Vietnamb. an attack on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkinc. North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam5. The Viet Cong used guerilla warfare tactics. Find 3 details on p. 18 to describe this kind of fighting:6. Why did the U.S. find it difficult to fight in Vietnam even though it had better weapons?7. What made Americans question whether the U.S. should be involved in the war?8.. p. 19 How did the government get enough troops to fight in the war? Cite two textual details that explain why this issue was “controversial” or likely to cause disagreement?9. What happened at Kent State University? How do you think Americans reacted to this?10. What happened after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam?11. Put it together: Since the war in Vietnam, the U.S. has fought in two wars, but it has not used a draft. Why?12. Do you see the war in Irag and Afghanistan on TV? Why not?How Did Television Affect the Vietnam Conflict?by David Kenneth, Demand MediaThe Vietnam Conflict, which lasted from 1965 to 1973, was the first televised war in American history. This media coverage differed from that of past wars. In this era before cable television, whole families still gathered to watch the evening news… As a result, television was a major factor in American society‘s perception or opinion of the war. The Vietnam Conflict created distrust between people and the government, provided war protestors with an audience and altered the perception of the American fighting “man.”Balanced CoverageAmerican television provided what was essentially some of the most objective war reporting to date. Military authorities granted journalists unparalleled access to the troops. It was the responsibility of the networks to censor material. There was no federal Committee on Public Information managing the overall portrayal of events, as occurred in World War II. Instead, during the Vietnam era, Americans received television coverage of the war that included both successes and failures.Tet Offensive, January 1968During Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the North Vietnamese Communist enemy launched a sneak attack in South Vietnam against American facilities. Though American and the allied South Vietnamese troops won the battle, the television images shocked viewers who thought the enemy had long been contained. Earlier, in 1967, General William C. Westmoreland, the commander of American troops, claimed that things were going well in Vietnam and that there was “light at the end of the tunnel.” Americans, who had never lost a war, implicitly trusted the commander. Then, one morning, people awoke to television images of enemy forces on the grounds of the American embassy in Saigon. Walter Cronkite, of CBS News, famously predicted that the war would end in a stalemate, increasing the anxiety of viewers. Faced with this loss in public confidence, President Lyndon Baines Johnson soon announced that he would not run for re-election.ProtestsSince there was no cable television, most Americans only had access to the three major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). These broadcasters reported the events from Vietnam in three-minute clips each night. War protestors, in particular, strategically planned their events to receive as much airtime as possible. The Vietnam Conflict was the first instance where protestors had the ability to state their case directly to the American people.1. Why do you think the Vietnam War was the first televised war in history?2. How was media coverage of the Vietnam war different than the coverage of WWII?3. What was the Tet Offensive? Why did the Tet make many Americans distrust what the government was saying about the war?4. How did protestors use television?The war in Vietnam became unpopular because of the draft and because television coverage showed how gruesome and unsuccessful the war was. We have been in two wars since Vietnam, but we have not had a draft. Television coverage of these wars in carefully controlled. Do you think that changes how we think or don’t think about these wars? Why?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ................
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