Walter Cronkite and CBS crew in Vietnam, 1968
Courtesy Still Pictures Branch/National Archives
|
Vietnam: Perception, Revisited
Vietnam makes the news once again — albeit briefly — as media organizations mark the 25th anniversary of the fall or liberation of Saigon, depending on your view. While that country still fights a virtually invisible battle to rebuild, the role of the media in covering and mis-covering the war remains hotly debated. As in so many other Vietnam War issues, supporters of the war cite one set of lessons, critics another. MediaChannel affiliates discuss this first media war in this special report edited by MediaChannel "War & Peace" editor and Vietnam veteran Tom Nusbaumer.
|
|
The Historic Battle
Phillip Knightley, acclaimed author of "First Causality" — as in truth, the first causality of war — presents a sweeping review of war journalism for the last 25 years, from the journalistic freedom of the Vietnam era, to the Falklands conflict that clamped down on the press, and, finally, to Kosovo and the perfection of media control during wartime. "What had changed between Vietnam and Kosovo?" Knightley asks. "Basically," he answers, "the military has won its 150-year battle with war correspondents." From Guardian Unlimited, March 20 2000
|
|
|
The Gag Rule
There are many lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War, both political and military. Yet only one lesson has played a central role in every military intervention in the post-Vietnam era: Gag The Press. MediaChannel's "War & Peace" Editor, Tom Nusbaumer, a former U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, believes that by restricting the press and dumbing down the information given to the public, political and military leaders can forever hide from the media during wartime. From The Media Channel, May 3 2000
|
|
|
|
The New York Times: What Were You?
During the Vietnam War, was The New York Times really a liberal newspaper? Renowned social and media critic Edward S. Herman refutes this widely held belief and argues that The Times was actually "a war promoter" and supportive of the aggressive policies of both Johnson and Nixon. Even after the war, Herman adds, The Times perpetuated the suffering of Vietnamese people by endorsing the economic boycott of their battered nation. From Z Magazine/ZNet, October 1 1998
|
|
|
|
The Perpetual Instant
Every conflict since the American Civil War — every American conflict, that is — has been a photography war. Pictures forever freeze combat, hold for eternity the horrible reality of a second. Although Vietnam was "the television war" because it was the first war television brought into the living room, its most memorable images lie in still photographs. Susan Moeller, a photojournalist and author, reviews the medium and its defining photographs in Vietnam. From Freedom Forum, October 1 1998
|
|
|
|
Seems Like Yesterday, Hopefully Not Tomorrow
MediaChannel News Dissector Danny Schechter covered Vietnam (left) from his radio
studio in Boston and on the ground in North and South Vietnam in 1974. In this account, published (in Ramparts Magazine) just before the war ended in 1975, Schechter visits the American Embassy to be "briefed" and then discusses the relationship between the press and the government spin machine. This article appears in a just published collection of his work, "News Dissector: Passions, Pieces and Polemics, l960-2000" (electronpress.com). From Electron Press, May 2000.
|
|
|
|
To Misinform: The Response
In "Regret To Miss-Inform," Andrew Lew hears only silence when he wants voices. Writing for Pacific News Service, this Vietnamese-American asks why the tragic voices of those who perished in re-education camps and on boats fleeing post-war Communist Vietnam are not heard. By excluding these victims, Lam insists, the ideas within "Regret To Inform" merely simplify and muffle instead of giving true insight and ultimately truth. From The Black World Today, January 26 2000
|
|
|
|
To Inform: The Film
Why do a group of women who are not journalists ask questions the mainstream media persistently avoids? Produced and directed and featuring Vietnam War widows, "Regret To Inform" is a documentary film about women who have lived with the horrendous pain of their husbands' deaths for more than thirty years. It's this heart-wrenching agony which forces these women to ask the most difficult questions. Also visit the online memorial for war widows and read their stunning personal accounts. From FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), January 20 2000
|
|
|
|
Paradigm Or Obsolete?
Writing for The Times of Zambia, Gilbert Manda asks: Does Vietnam remain the model for war reporting, or is it essentially irrelevant today? The same problems persist, such as governments using patriotic sensibilities to silence journalists and militaries demanding censorship while denying access to battlefields. Yet the technology — satellite phones, smaller cameras, faxes, computers — is certainly different. In this insightful discussion, Manda explores what Vietnam means today. From allAfrica.com, October 25 1999
|
|
|
|
A Time In Vietnam
While on assignment in Liberia, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Arnett is reminded of Vietnam thirty years earlier. "Vietnam," Arnett writes, "was a defining movement for American journalism because a new generation of war correspondents severed the accommodating relationship their predecessors had forged with the military in two world wars, and instead demanded accountability." Arnett, along with David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Mal Browne and other resolute young journalists demanded this change in the historical military-media relationship. From Freedom Forum, April 1 1997
|
|
|
|
|
AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE
MEDIA.
|
|
VIETNAM NOW
Human Rights Watch on the current state of human rights in Vietnam. |
MORE MEMORIES
The anniversary Web site: Documents, photo gallery, letters, music, and more at Vietnam25.
The New York Times' special report: "A Different War."
|
|
|