http://thevietnamwar.

info/media-role-vietnam-war/
Discuss the media's handling of execution of civilians at My Lai and in Hue. Four pages
The Vietnam War was started as a strategy of containment by the US that was aimed
at preventing the dissemination of communism all over the world. The United States and its
allies from the Western viewed communism as the biggest competitor and post-war threat to
their democracies and free enterprise. Vietnam was colonized by the French until the signing
of a treaty in 1954 at Geneva conference that separated the North anti-capitalist from the
South capitalists after the Dien Bien Phu war. After French lost control of Vietnam, the
Korean War also came to an end, and the nation was left divided into South and North Korea
with USSR and China actively supporting the communist government of North Korea. The
US feared the Southeast Asia including Cambodia and Thailand would embrace communism
in a similar instance as what had happened in Eastern Europe. Such would encourage
regional trading partners such as Taiwan, Japan, and New Zealand to politically compromise
with communism. The US, therefore, acted in Vietnam to keep the dominance of South
Vietnamese, which was pro-capitalism from falling. The following paper will discuss the US
participation in the Vietnam War, the execution in My Lai and Hue and how the media
handled the execution.
The My Lai massacre is among the most horrific and dreadful events of violence
against civilians that was perpetrated by a group of American soldiers in March 16, 1968,
during the Vietnam War. The soldiers brutally killed most of the people occupying the South
Vietnamese village of My Lai. It is believed that over 500 people among them children,
women, and the elderly were brutally killed in the massacre. The horrific incidents of that
killing were covered up by top-ranking US Army officers for a year, but revelations by a
soldier who had knowledge of the massacre sparked international outrage. Special inquiries

into the matter were lounged after the outrage and in 1970 a board of US Armies charged 14
officers. Only one soldier was convicted of crimes related to the My Lai massacre. However,
the extent of cover-up ignited antiwar segments in the United States, and the nation was
divided over the presence of America in Vietnam.
On the other hand, the unthinkable events of February 1968, in Hue make the city one
of the saddest up to today. A communist force of over 12000 invaded Hue in the night of
January 30, 1968, and were driven out after 26 days by military action. After that, it was
discovered that more than 5700 civilians were either dead or missing. In addition, it became
irrefutable that all those civilians had been killed when mass graves were unearthed. Many
bodies had their hands and legs tied. A few others had been buried alive without any wounds
while others had been beheaded. Even more, several other bodies had bullet wounds all over
them. From the look of the bodies, it was proof enough that a massacre had occurred.
In 1950, only 9% of homes in America owned a television. However, by 1966, the
proportion had risen dramatically to 93%. In 1964, a survey was conducted in the US and
58% of the respondents said that they received most of their news from television. During the
My Lai massacre and the executions in Hue, the people of America depended on television as
the most important source of information about the war. Besides, new record technologies,
for instance, video camera and audio recorder arose. Reporters and journalists would use the
new technologies to record video materials and take more photographs of what was
happening in Vietnam. Consequently, the government faced a big challenge in controlling the
new media a role it played properly during the First and Second World War by using strict
policies. Since there were no adequate government controls, the media would publish
uncensored videos and pictures displaying brutality of the Vietnam war, thus, majorly
influencing the public opinion of the people of America in unprecedented proportion.

When the Vietnam War began, the press had few interests in it. Only a few reports
were written about it, and whenever it was written, it focussed mostly on the rise of
communism in the nation. However, this changed after the rebellion against President Diem
in 1960. The coup against Diem at the end of 1960 where many civilians died changed the
medias views on Vietnam. After that, the New York Times sent their earliest reporters to
Saigon to start capturing the events. Harrison Salisbury was the first journalist from the New
York Times to visit North Vietnam in 1966. He gave a narration of events that included
civilian causalities and mass destruction of civilian areas caused by US bombing. All this
were denied by the US Army. Other news agencies such as the Reuters, the times and the
Agency France Press sent their journalists to Vietnam.
During 1960 and 1964, Americans started receiving bad news about the war from
press releases. The media described the battle of Ap Bac as a tragedy of the South Vietnam
Military. This is where my Lai is located. The Buddhist crisis portrayed Diems reign as
brutal and dictatorial. The media began to manipulate public attitude in a negative manner,
and that became a subject of worry for the government.
As the conflict intensified, there was a rapid increase in the number of press corps in
South Vietnam from 40 in 1964 to 419 in August, 1965. To deal with many press corps, the
United States applied a more efficient technique to maintain the correspondents in line. The
US Mission and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) appointed an information
zar, Barry Zorthian to counsel Gen. Westmoreland regarding information guiding principle.
Barry used his experience in media to ensure things were done much better. In all television
programs in major networks, the battle was branded as good guys shooting Reds story. The
media generally supported the US participation in Vietnam. However, the position
transformed shortly.

The occurrence of the Ted Offensive in January 1968 marked a turning point in the
presss coverage of the war. The Offensive was a military failure, but the media told a
different story. The media focused on unfavourable combat actions, for instance, the battle of
Hue or the attack on the US embassy by the Viet Cong but missed the big picture.
Consequently, the media misled the public to think the Communists had triumphed and that
altered their opinions on the war. Subsequent to the Ted offensive, media reporting became
predominantly negative. Moreover, many pictures of the war created a negative lasting
influence such as the execution of the Napalm Girl. With continued reporting, public support
for the war declined considerably.
In summary, despite the dawn in media reporting, the February 1968 massacre in Hue
and the March 1968 executions of civilians was almost being missed because of the cover-up
by top-ranking US military officers mostly in the My Lai massacre. However, with news
agencies learning of the horror happenings and continued reporting caused public outcry that
made the events to be investigated and one US Army officer was convicted even though
many other who participated in the killings being let off the hook.