The Vietnam War: Media or Military?

Paper Summary:

This paper questions the truth behind the myth that the media was mainly to blame in America losing the Vietnam War. It examines this assumption, discusses how the media may have helped form public opinion, and concludes that it is not with public opinion alone that a war is won.

From the Paper:

"The Vietnam War has been an extensive topic of discussion for the last few decades. Many have scrutinized the strategy of the US Military, criticizing them immensely. Indeed, the word Vietnam itself has to some extent become a synonym for failure, defeat, even folly. Was this failure due to the actions of the military alone? Or, as many believe, could the failure in fact have been caused by the media's role? The media has frequently been given substantial blame for the US defeat in Vietnam. During Vietnam, much tension arose between the armed services and the media, which led to a sort of "game of strategy, one-upmanship and high-stakes jockeying." So was the war lost because of the media's role in the lives of Americans at home? Or did the US military lose a war in which most would have expected a quick victory?"

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