ABSTRACT
It could be tempting to interpret the strained relations between the US media and the US government during the Vietnam War as a testament to the oppositional role of the former. Such tensions should instead be situated within the context of the deep-seated consensus that has seen the US press often toe the government line when it comes to coverage of foreign policy. In fact, that dynamic was part and parcel of a decades-long pattern in which the US government’s influence colored foreign news content. Using the concept of ‘sphere’ developed by Daniel Hallin as its base for the discussion, this chapter synthesizes the literature on how the American news media reported the Vietnam War during the 1960s and the first half of 1970s. The chapter seeks to address these questions: What shaped and dictated media coverage in the early years of the war? What caused the shift in public discourse? What did changes in the news discourse reflect about the dynamics of state-press relations? Did the American media portrayal of Vietnam change after the war ended?
