The Medias Role in the Vietnam War: Shaping Public Opinion

Ysa Le, Jamie Wang, Joanne Ha Junior Division Group Website

Primary Sources: - - -. Propaganda Leaflets Urging the Defection of VC and North Vietnamese to the Side of the Government of Vietnam. 1961. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vietnam_propaganda.gif>. This is a leaflet handed out by the U.S. government. Propaganda is another type of media and it is helpful to be able to see a real document.

- - -. Vietnam... Members of Companies B and D, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Take a Break from Jungle Fighting East of Tam Ky. 2 June 1969. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vietnam....Members_of_Companies_B_and_D ,_1st_Battalion,_501st_Infantry,_Regiment,_101st_Airborne_Division,_take_a...__NARA_-_531454.tif>. This image of American soldiers in Vietnam give a visual glimpse into the lives of a soldier. It shows what a depressing place war was.

- - -. Vietnam War Protestors at the March on the Pentagon. 21 Oct. 1967. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vietnam_War_protestors_at_the_March_on_t he_Pentagon.jpg>. This picture of protesters is helpful to our website because it gives a visual on how people did their protests and shows the dramatics of their slogans.

50 Years of Walter Cronkite's America. CBS News: Face the Nation. CBS Interactive, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7405498n>. This video clip has good information on the most important person of the U.S. news during the time of the Vietnam War. A family sitting around a television set. 1955. Photograph. This photograph provides us insight into the American familys reliance on television as a source of news and as a source of entertainment.

Department of Defense. Ngo Dinh Diem. 8 May 1957. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ngo_Dinh_Diem_-_Thumbnail__ARC_542189.gif>. The photo of Ngo Dinh Diem is important because he was the leader of South Vietnam during the war. It is good to have visuals on important figures to remember them better.

DeWolf, Nicholas. Boston 1970 Protest Against the Vietnam War. Oct. 1970. Photograph. This photo of the protest against the war shows the types and ways that the public fought against the government.

Draft Card Burning NYC. 15 Apr. 1967. Photograph. This photograph is a picture of a sign that signals the place of a draft card burning. It helps us understand the depth of the Americans discontent against the Vietnam war that they would destroy government documents.

Dunst, Larry. I Want Out. 1971. Blood for Oil. Blood for Oil. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://archive.thr5.com/bloodforoil.org/unsell-the-war/>. This was a propaganda poster that was shown during the war to encourage people to fight for the end of the war. It helped us see what the actual public was seeing at the time and develop a perspective.

English Online. Protest in America. N.d. English Online. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.english-online.at/history/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-background.htm>. This photo of protesters really adds to the emotional aspect of our website.

Filo, John. John Filo's iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a fourteen-year-old runaway, kneeling in anguish over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was shot by the Ohio National Guard. 1970. Photograph. This is a very famous and emotional photo that depicts the violence of protests.

Florida Memory. Bill King and Patricia Stephens-Boycott and Picketing of Downtown Stores. Dec. 1960. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_King_and_Patricia_StephensBoycott_and_picketing_of_downtown_stores_Tallahassee,_Florida.jpg>. This photo of two people protesting against racism is additive to the website in producing visuals.

Good, Thomas. SDSers Gather outside the Smithsonian in Washington. 27 Jan. 2007. Next Left Notes: Photo Album. Next Left Notes: Let the People Decide. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://antiauthoritarian.net/NLN/?p=175>. This photograph depicts SDS marchers in the capital. It is important for us to know how these people protested and the image helps us understand.

Hartmann. Nixon 30-0316a. 8 July 1971. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nixon_30-0316a.jpg>. This photo of Nixon is helpful to our website because it gives a visual on the most involved president of the Vietnam War. This president is very easily recognizable so having a photo extends connection of information.

Ho Chi Minh 1946. 1946. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ho_Chi_Minh_1946_cropped.jpg>. This picture is important because it is of the leader of the North Vietnam forces who was a big influence in the Vietnam War. Visuals of a person assist in recognition and expanded knowledge of primary figures.

JFKLF. Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960. YouTube. YouTube, 21 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbrcRKqLSRw>. This is the original TV broadcast of the Presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy and is important to have in our website.

Life Magazine. 4 Dead in Ohio. 4 May 1970. Framing the Sixites. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.framingthesixties.com/article/24>. This picture is helpful because it depicts the cover of an important event in a impactful magazine. It is a nice primary resource.

Military Selective Service Act. 50 USC. Sec. 12. 2012. Print. This act includes a section on the alteration or destroying of government documents. This rule was added after people continually burned draft cards during the Vietnam War so it is a big affect.

Newman, Arnold. Lyndon B. Johnson: Photo Portrait. 10 Mar. 1964. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lyndon_B._Johnson,_photo_portrait,_leaning _on_chair,_color.jpg>. The picture of President Johnson is useful because it gives a good visual on one of the presidents who was in office during the Vietnam War.

New York Times. The New York Times Begins to Publish the Pentagon Papers. 13 June 1971. Photograph. The National Security Archive. This was an image of the front page of the New York Times that had articles about the release of the Pentagon Papers. It is important to have primary resources to back up your info, which is what this helped us do.

O'Halloran, Thomas J. Walter Cronkite on Television 1976. 23 Sept. 1976. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walter_Cronkite_on_television_1976.jpg>. This picture was of Walter Cronkite who was the main man in television in the Vietnam War era. It makes sense to have a visual on him since most Americans saw this man every night on their T.V.

Okamoto, Yoichi R. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Johnson. 18 Mar. 1966. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._and_Lyndon_Johns on.jpg>. This photo of President Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. shows what a strong influence Dr. King was to America's history.

"Pentagon Documents." The Miami News [Miami, Florida] 17 June 1971: n pag. Rpt. in Government & the Media in Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1974. 59. Print. This newspaper article talks about the information on the the Pentagon Papers. It also shows that people felt that their freedoms were being taken away because of the censorship of information from the public.

"Pentagon Papers." Newsday [Long Island, NY] 16 June 1971: n. pag. Rpt. in Government & the Media in Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1974. 60. Print.

This newspaper article has valuable information about the Pentagon Papers. This article is about on President Nixon and Johnson's decisions and how the government is withholding information from the public. It is a good example of the media fighting the government which adds to my research. Also, it has a quote from a representative that helps us understand what people that is working for the government thinking.

"The Pentagon Papers: Free--At Last." The Washington Post [Washington D.C.] 1 July 1971: n. pag. Rpt. in Government & the Media in Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1974. 73. Print. This article discusses the argument between the media and the government over publishing classified government documents. This helped by giving us good details about both the media and the governments arguments and is a good primary source because it held information about the court case involving the pentagon papers. Also, this source helped us understand the thinking of newspapers and the probability of censorship.

"Publication of the War Papers." Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles, California] 17 June 1971: n. pag. Rpt. in Government & the Media in Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1974. 84. Print. This article provides information about the court case for The New York Times. This source is a good primary source because it provides the governments claims, and the arguments that the people make. Also, it gives information about how the Pentagon papers were released, and what happened after they were published.

Scherman, Rowland. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. 28 Aug. 1963. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joan_Baez_and_Bob_Dylan.jpg>. This is a photo of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan making music together. These two were of the biggest music artists during the time and they both sang about anti war topics. It is nice to have a picture to remember them better.

"Secret Papers." The Milwaukee Journal [Milwaukee, Wisconsin] 16 June 1971: n. pag. Rpt. in Government & the Media in Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1974. N. pag. Print. This article talks about the public's rights to know about the government and the press's rights to inform the public about the government. It also says that the government's claims are very weak. The article includes some information about the Pentagon Papers and discusses how the U.S. government's decisions about the bombings of Vietnam helped bring the U.S. deeper into the war. This helped us understand why the public suspected the government for more censorship. This is an important source because it shows us what the American people were seeing in the news. Also, it provides the arguments the Nixon administration used.

"Secret War Papers." The Boston Globe [Boston, Masachusettes] 16 June 1971: n. pag. Rpt. in Government & the Media in Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1974. 59. Print. This newspaper article helped us understand the pentagon papers and what the Nixon Administration were doing. Also, it provides arguments from both the government and the newspapers to help us understand both sides of the conflict.

Special Tribute for Vietnam Veterans. CBS News. CBS Interactive, 28 May 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_evening_news/video/2240110616/special-tributefor-vietnam-veterans>. This video had an overview of President Obama's visit to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C., which is one of the biggest ways the war is remembered today. This represents some of the aftermath of the war.

Steinman, Ron. Inside Television's First War. Columbia: U of Missouri, 2002. Print. This book is important because it talks about the government's actions and it is written by somebody who worked as the Saigon Bureau chief for NBC News in April 1966. It will be useful because it gives the media's opinion about the Vietnam War and government. This is a good source because this talks about the President and the governments actions. U.S. Army Worker. Pentagon Vietnam Protests. 21 Oct. 1967. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pentagon_vietnam_protests.jpg>. This is a peaceful kind of protest. A sit in, where people were still able to show their discontent without violence.

White House Photographic Office. Henry Kissinger. 29 Apr. 1975. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Kissinger.png>.

Henry Kissinger was the Secretary of State and helped in creating policies for peace during the Vietnam War. Having a visual extends upon our research of him.

Wolfe, Frank. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Vietnam War Protesters. 21 Oct. 1967. Wikipedia Commons. Wikipedia Commons. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_Brigade_Vietnam_War_Pr otesters.gif>. This protest had veterans participating as well. It is important to see the many sides an argument.

Women's March. 1968. Found San Francisco. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. <http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Women's_Liberation_Origins_and_Development_of_ the_Movement>. This photo gives visual insight into the fight for women's rights. It also adds a visual aspect to our website. Secondary Sources: "Anti-War." Reimagining the Vietnam War. U of Texas at Austin, 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/michael-keshia-and-patricks-site/anti-war>. This website is important because it includes a lot of pictures and posters that prove people were going against the Vietnam War. It also shows many different ways of rebelling and protesting. I can use the photographs to support my arguments on my website. Also, this site gives us songs that were anti-war. This helped us understand what the citizens of America were seeing, hearing and doing at the time.

Barringer, Mark, and Tom Wells. "The Anti-War Movement in the United States." English Department of Illinois. ATLAS, 2008. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html>. This article has information about the protests and how they developed as the Vietnam War continued. It focuses on the students that participated in the protests. It also has some statistics about how many people participated in various protests. This text had a good summary of the protest groups and their actions during the Vietnam War. This helped us understand what people felt about the war.

BBC News. "1969: Millions March in US Vietnam Moratorium." BBC On This Day. BBC News, 15 Oct. 2005. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. This article provides a description of the protest at Washington D.C. on October 15, 1969. It states why people were protesting, and also includes several quotes from protesters. It helps us understand that there were also local impacts of my topic.

Blute, Patrick. "Social Impacts of the Media during the Vietnam War." Harwich. Harwich, Mar. 2007.Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://harwich.edu/depts/history/HHJ/Blute.html>. This website gave really good background information on the Vietnam War. It also explained really well why the Vietnam War was called the "Living Room War" with lots of details that I can use in my website.

Brainy Quote. "Vietnam War Quotes." Brainy Quote. Brainy Quote, 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/vietnam_war.html>. This website had many good quotes from famous people on the Vietnam War. They really added to the website.

Cumings, Bruce. War and Television. London: Verso, 1992. Print. This book explains how the Vietnam War came to be called a "living room war." Cumings talks about his experience during the Vietnam War and when he found out the government was not being entirely truthful. It is a primary resource because Cumings talks about his own experiences.

Fincher, Ernest Barksdale. The Vietnam War. New York: Franklin Watts, 1980. Print. This book helped us because it didn't just focus on the U.S.'s point of view of the Vietnam War like most of the resources on this topic. It talked about the Vietnamese leaders, the Chinese, the Korean, the French and more. This is additive to my website because it helps keep it unbiased and true.

Galt, Margot Fortunato. Stop This War. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2000. Print. This resource assisted in my research because it helped us understand the who, what, when, where and whys of my topic more than the other books because it was written in a very clear, chronological fashion. Another good thing about this book was that it was written following the stories of several individuals who were involved in the war. This book helped us see the opinions of the protesters and decision makers.

Hamilton, Neil. The 1970's. New York: Facts on File, 2006. Print. This resource covers most of the biggest protests during the Vietnam War. It gave us more details on specific protests for my website. It also showed us pictures of protests, which allowed us to see what other Americans were seeing at the time.

Hoobler, Dorothy, and Thomas Hoobler. Vietnam: Why We Fought. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Print. This book is important because it is not biased, and it included pro-war pictures. It helped us see both sides of the argument of whether or not the United States should have stayed Vietnam War. It also has many photographs that I could use in my website. This book summarizes the war in simple words, helping us understand some of the harder concepts.

Inside Televisions First War: A Saigon Journal. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. This resource is a first person point of view about their experience during the Vietnam War while integrating factual information. This helped us by being able to connect the war info with a real person's point of view. Landers, James. The Weekly War. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004. Print. This source is important because it includes an account of various forms of media such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. It has quotes from magazines that were published during the end of the Vietnam War. This book directly informs the readers about the censorship of information and mentions the role media played in the Vietnam War throughout the whole book. Also, this source has information

on what caused the uprising of protests, which helped us understand what was going through the Americans mind. This source offered information on censorship and the battle between newspapers and television.

Langer, Howard, comp. The Vietnam War: An Encyclopedia of Quotations. Westport, Connecticut: Greenword, 2005. Print. This book provided quotes from various citizens at the time of the War. It helped us understand what people were saying and thinking during the time. Also, it gave us information about what people said during protests.

Lawrence, Mark Atwood. The Vietnam War: A Concise International History. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. This book has good information about President Johnson and Nixon's decisions, the government during the Vietnam War and the viewpoints of other countries. This helped us create a balanced view of the whole political picture.

Meach, Charles. "Protest Music Sparking Social Change." The Age of Irony: Twentieth Century America. Evergreen State College, 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012. <http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/ageofirony/aoizine/charles.html>. This resource had the lyrics and analysis of many anti-war songs written during the Vietnam War. Songs are part of the protest and this helped us expand upon protest knowledge. This source helped inform us about music played during protests. Music held

a very important role during these protests, so this website allowed us to hear and understand what the protesters were listening to and singing.

"Media Coverage of the Vietnam War." Reimagining the Vietnam War. OWS, 2009. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/reimagining-vietnam-war/media-coverage-vietnam-war>. This website had a lot famous photographs that depicted the suffering of the Vietnamese people very well. It also had some interviews with veterans that were very useful. The website also included a documentary named The Quiet Mutiny.

Miller, John. "Vietnam War Protests." Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society, 2007. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/V/VI005.html>. This resource had good information on the student's Vietnam War protests. This aspect of the war was important in changing people's mind about the war.

Moise, Edwin. "Selected Statistics on the Vietnam War, with a Few from Iraq." Clemson. Clemson University, 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/EdMoise/VNStats.html>. This source was very helpful by giving us public opinion polls with the number of casualties. This allowed us to compare the opinion of the public and how many deaths were occurring. This helped us understand what they public were thinking, and why.

Notable Quotes. "Quotes on the Vietnam War." Notable Quotes. Notable Quotes, 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.notable-quotes.com/v/vietnam_war_quotes.html>. This cite had two quotes from Richard Nixon and Time magazine. They enhanced our research by giving us what a variety of people said during the time.

Priest, Brady. "The Effects of Photojournalism on the Protest Movement during the Vietnam War." Three Images. Trustees of Wellesley College, 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2012. <http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/Vietnam/ThreeImages/brady.html>. This source provided images that were shown to the American public and the background behind the images. This helped us understand the effects on photojournalism. Also, this article gave us information about who took each picture, and where the pictures were published.

"Principal Wars in Which the United States Participated." Chart. CRS Report for Congress. U of Maryland, 14 May 2008. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. <http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RL32492_05142008. pdf>. This source provides information about the deaths of soldiers in the war, allowing us to understand the connection between the death rates and the publics opinion.

"Public Opinion and the Vietnam War." Digital History. U of Houston, Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2012. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/vietnam_pubopinion.cfm>.

This was a significant source because it provided public opinion polls over the years allowing us to see the difference in the public's thinking.

"Information about Fatal Casualties of the Vietnam War." National Archives. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualtystatistics.html#category>. This website provided statistics of casualties in the Vietnam War. It also gave us information on what the deaths were classified as. This information can help us understand why protests were different at some times compared to other times. For example, protests were more violent when there were more casualties, but less violent when there were fewer deaths.

Top 10 Walter Cronkite Moments: JFK, Vietnam, Watergate. Examiner.com. Clarity Digital Group, 16 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.examiner.com/video/top-10walter-cronkite-moments-jfk-vietnam-watergate>. This video was a summary of Walter Cronkite's career in media. It is helpful is describing the impact of media on the public as well as Cronkites position in affecting the Vietnam War.

Turner, Robert, and John Moore, eds. How Political Warfare Caused America to Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory in Vietnam. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic, 2002. Print.

This is a good source because it gives us public opinion polls. Also, this source gave us information about the labeling of hawks" and "doves" on the American public. This helped us understand what the general public was thinking.