The Vietnam War was an international conflict that sparked one of the largest anti-war movements in American history. The impactful decisions that were made throughout the war contributed to opposing opinions and the perpetuation of the war. The anti-Vietnam War movement was fueled by the growing presence of the media in delivering the war into people’s lives and homes, the division between classes over who was actually doing the fighting, and a rising reaction among the citizenry against the government's infringements on civil liberties in order to support the war efforts.
The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1964-1975, was the second longest war in American history and was fought based on the promise to South Vietnam that the United States would keep the communist forces from over taking them. American involvement in the war was also heavily intensified by the ongoing Cold War. The American policy of containment, or the “domino theory,” held that if one country fell to communism, other would soon follow, so it is America’s job to contain the spread of communism. It is because of this that America entered a bloody war against a guerrilla army on their home turf in which they were unable to win. By the time that President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of US forces in 1973, America had lost billions of dollars, 60,000 American soldiers, and failed to achieve their goal resulting in a unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The anti-war movement started with a few small scale demonstrations in 1964, but with the growing military involvement and perpetuation of the war, these small scale demonstrations led to full social movement. In fact, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all received support in their early phases of the war, and initially only one member of congress opposed the war. By 1968, though, 42% of Americans were opposed to the war and anti-war riots and rallies were in full force. The One factor that contributed to this anti-war fever that swept through America was the growing presence of the media that was able to deliver information on the war straight to the homes of all Americans.
The media fueled the anti-war movement because of its ability to present the intensity and lengthiness of the Vietnam War directly to Americans. The Vietnam War is known as the “first television war” (britannica) because for the first time in American history the majority of Americans owned televisions; televisions were critical in representing the full intensity of the Vietnam War which in turn led to greater opposition towards the war. In 1950 only 9% of Americans owned a television, but by 1966 the number had risen to 93%. Not only did more Americans start to own televisions, but more Americans actually started to trust what they heard on television more than what they read in newspapers. The fact that television was so influential on Americans is central to understanding why the media was able to have such a profound effect on Americans at the time. Reporters during the Vietnam War had unfettered access to the war with little to no censorship; they were even able to join the army and observe their daily lives. This allowed Americans to witness real battle scenes with real soldiers being wounded and killed right from the comfort of their living rooms on the nightly news. These images were more powerful than any newspaper image could be, and it compelled many people to voice their opinions regarding the war because turning a blind eye was nearly impossible. The more and more casualties that Americans were directly witnessing, the less apt they were to support war efforts. This was the beginning of what is now known as the CNN effect, which states that CNN and other news broadcaster’s use of graphic images about humanitarian cases sparks the will to create social change in people, and as a result, people insert themselves into humanitarian situations that they would otherwise not care about. The CNN effect perfectly explains why the media would have an effect on the growing anti-war movement. The media provided real time graphic images of the war which influenced people to take action and in turn fueled the anti-war movement.
The media also fueled the anti-war movement through its biased negative portrayal of the Vietnam War. The relationship between the government and the media during the Vietnam War was one of conflict. From the perspective of president Richard Nixon, “The news would report every battle, but never the underlying purpose of the fight. This made americans believe that we were fighting just to fight, and not for a worthwhile objective.” But from the perspective of journalists, what they were observing in Vietnam sometimes contradicted information from the government and it was their obligation to report the truth to the American people. Either way, the discrepancies between information coming from Washington and news reporters left Americans confused and distant from war efforts which increased their questioning of authority and whether the war should be fought. One example of the disconnect between the government and the media during the Kennedy Administration. When Kennedy first became president he issued a statement that said he was sending a few hundred “advisors” to Vietnam to support the war efforts. It was extremely clear to the journalists that were actually in Vietnam that these so called “advisors” were really just military troops. When the reporters tried to verify Kennedy’s statement by asking him if he had stationed any more military troops in Vietnam, his answer was “no.” It is obvious that Kennedy was trying to downplay the severity of the war, and the media was a hindrance in him doing so. Another example of the disconnect between media and government was during the Johnson administration. Johnson increased the military troops in Vietnam to 150 thousand, but he released a statement saying that he had increased military troops to only 21 thousand. Again, the journalists stationed in Vietnam were able to see that Johnson’s statement was false, and they published articles that contradicted information coming out of Washington. It is clear from these examples that the government had a political agenda that the media was not cooperating with. The government tried to downplay the number of soldiers that were actually fighting in Vietnam in order to appease American peoples who were concerned that America was letting thousands of soldiers die in a war that America did not need to be involved in: the central premise of the anti-war movement. By shedding light on the political agenda of the American government, the media caused a decline of trust in authority. This distrust in authority made Americans question why the government was involved in the Vietnam War in the first place, and perpetuated the growing anti-war movement.