This statement suggests that television was an important reason why the United States lost the war in Vietnam. Is there sufficient evidence in sources D to L to support this interpretation? Use the source and knowledge from your studies to explain the answer. Television was important during the Vietnam War. It was the first war to be broadcast in an uncensored way.
In the late 60’s, most Americas had colour televisions. Millions of Americas tuned in daily for the six o’clock news; with television becoming part of the war, it became known as the ‘ six o’clock war’. This was the way Americans viewed the war. Some of the sources provide sufficient evidence to suggest America lost the war due to TV.
Source E is a photograph of the effects of napalm, published during the Vietnam War. Napalm was supposed to destroy the trees so the Americans could find the Vietcong, but instead it fell on innocent children. This picture shows a contrast between the American troops in military gear and the children in pain. It clearly shows the troops as not helping, nor caring about the children. This provides sufficient evidence that TV was important because this source became a famous picture of the war.
The Public would have been constantly bombarded with pictures similar to this. This picture is from 1972, towards the end of the war. People had realised that the US was going to loose the war. Nixon was already in power, deciding whether to end the war. The picture was so controversial that newspapers were at first reluctant to print the picture, they claimed it was full frontal nudity.
The purpose of the picture was to shock Americans, and was motivation for a peace movement. The motive of the photograph was to produce anti-war propaganda. This source has sufficient evidence to show TV was an important reason why the US lost the war, because the picture and video footage were shown all around the world. Source F is an American’s account of an attack on Vietnamese civilians. It is by Richard Hamer, an American journalist writing in 1970; war was in its seventh year.
This type of account would be reported regularly. There were Vietcong sympathisers in the hamlets, the troops didn’t know who they were. This was typical of events happening all the time. The journalist is questioning their instructions; he wanted to know the truth about what was happening.
This gives people sufficient evidence that things are going wrong in Vietnam. This account would have been on American TV. This source would give sufficient evidence to America; things in Vietnam were not going well. It gives sufficient evidence to show television was important because this journalist was a TV personality.
The impact on the American people was that their troops were going in unsure who the enemy was. In the confusion they would accidentally kill innocent Vietnamese. The purpose of the source was to report how Americans were doing in the war. The motive was to produce anti-war propaganda, to show people that the troops were confused as to who the enemy was.
Source J is a picture from the Kent State Massacre. This was another protest, but this one was deliberately organised for the media. Cameras were also brought in just to show the demonstration. The National Guard was brought in to control the demonstration, but ended up killing 4 students. It made the government takes notice of what was happening.
They realised many Americans were opposed to the war. This was produced a year after Nixon came into power. It was clear that the US had lost. This gives sufficient evidence to show TV brought an end to the war, because it showed Americans were apposed to the war.
It has evidence to show that TV was deliberately brought in to promote an Anti-war feeling; the purpose was to spread this feeling. This was well reported on TV. This contributed to the peace movement and the end of the war. The purpose was to make the media take notice of the anti-war movement. The motive was for this to be reported on TV, so that the government would take notice. Because of the deaths, it became a big TV moment.
Source L also provides evidence to that TV lost the war for the US. It is an interview with Don McCullen who was a British photographer, whose duty was to report the war, his pictures appeared on TV and the press. He initially took pictures that showed the Americans in a good light. His role changed while reporting, he took pictures showing Americans confused and the Vietnamese treated badly. He felt it was his duty to show what was happening in the war. His motive was to produce anti-war propaganda.
This shows sufficient evidence because his pictures changed the opinion of what Americans saw happening. After seeing what was happening, they told the government what they though by protesting. Some of the sources show that TV was not the reason America lost the war though does show the importance of the media. Source D is a North Vietnamese poster showing that the American troops unable to find the Vietcong. This was a poster that would have been put the Americans off.
The poster shows the Americans couldn’t fight a guerrilla war. The Vietcong would ambush the American troops in the jungle. The Vietcong were being secretly supplied with weapons via the ‘ Ho Chi Mien Trails.’ The cartoon’s purpose was to reduce the morale of the American troops.
This is not sufficient evidence that television lost the war because the American people wouldn’t have seen this, though US troops in Vietnam would of. It would have been displayed in Vietnam, to reduce the morale of American troops and give a message that the Vietcong couldn’t be defeated. People out of Vietnam would not of seen the poster. Source G is the reaction of an American soldier named Ronald Rodenhour. In it he describes the actions of the troops like the Nazis. He also says that he went out to do something courageous, but this wasn’t slaughtering innocent Vietnamese.
This would have upset the parents who fought in WWII that their children were behaving like Nazis. This account was sent to 30 leading government officials. It triggered an investigation and popular American magazine ‘ Life’ became involved. It caused such controversy because it showed America clearly didn’t know what they were doing in Vietnam.
This source is a form of protest, but it is not sufficient to make the US loose the war. The purpose of the source was for Ronald to voice his opinions on what their instructions were. His motive was to tell people and government officials, that the war was a lost cause. This is a written protest and probably wouldn’t make it onto TV.
Source H also has insufficient evidence to cause America to loose the war because of the source. The source is a cartoon for the British magazine ‘ Punch’ published in 1967. In the cartoon we can see president Johnson was chopping up wood labelled ‘ A great society’ on a train, being burnt in an engine labelled as ‘ US economy’ and releasing a smoke labelled ‘ Vietnam’. The cartoon is showing that he is destroying the country to fund the war. Britain is America’s strongest ally and knew that they had half a million troops. The purpose is to show readers of what the artist though Johnson was doing to the country.
It is a form of protest, but the cartoon is only an opinion, it would have not made it out of Britain. The motive was for the artist to show what he thought Johnson was doing to the country. Source K is an Australian opinion poll; the source has insufficient evidence to show TV lost the war. In the poll it shows that Australians were initially in favour of the America continuing in the war, but later on they were in favour of them returning.
The purpose is to show that the Australian’s opinion of the war. This source is useless; the results of the poll would have never made it onto TV. The source is insufficient to show TV lost the war for the US. Americans are unlikely to care what the Australians thought. Television contributed greatly to the anti-war and anti-government feeling.
Pictures coming from Vietnam showed initially good news, but later on news and TV became bombarded with anti-war propaganda. Once Nixon came into power in ’69, he was forced to rethink America’s position in the war. Due to the public’s anti-war feeling and how badly the US was doing in the war, he pulled out in ’73. Source E, F, J and L show how TV could contribute to an anti-war feeling, a factor for America loosing the war. The response of the public had America rethink what they were doing. Sources D, G, H and K would have never appear on US TV.
Some of these sources affected troops in Vietnam, but were never reported by the press. Though these sources show evidence of the media worldwide being against the war.
