ABSTRACT
The role of the media in the Vietnam War has been greatly debated. It has been argued that the media played a decisive role, that the will of the American people to fi ght the war was destroyed by the distorted, inaccurate, one-sided, anti-military, liberal press. The services have tended to accept this argument. This was evident later in Operation Desert Storm, during which the Central Command denied reporters direct access to tactical formations and formed media pools that were tightly controlled by public affairs offi cers. 3 The services modifi ed their behaviors and policies towards the media based on their perceptions of its
performance in Vietnam. General Westmoreland believed that the press in Vietnam acted irresponsibly; that it misrepresented the actions of the armed forces of the United States and ARVN, particularly during the 1968 Tet Offensive, which the press inaccurately portrayed as a major defeat for US and ARVN forces. He also believed that the press exerted too much infl uence on President Johnson and other politicians, recognizing that they frequently made decisions based on public opinion polls. While many in the military developed a profound distrust of the media, later studies have argued that the problems in Vietnam
were a function of the duplicity of the White House and Pentagon; their efforts to hide the true nature of the war and America’s involvement; deeply fl awed, contradictory strategy; the efforts of the Army to conceal unpleasant information and reveal only half-truths; and that in fact the preponderance of coverage was either favorable or neutral.
