The Mass Media And Vietnam

Abstract

The question many Vietnam scholars have asked is, “What went wrong with American policy in Vietnam Fewer have asked, "What impact did the mass media have on the way the public viewed the war ?" Fewer yet asked the question, “What was the relationship between the government, the media, and the public in the way policy was formed, and the war was fought, and what were the relative impacts of each of these agents on the way the war was conducted ?" This question shall be the focal point of this study. Each agent (i.e. the mass media, the public, and the government) shall be given individual attention. But to facilitate understanding of each of these agents, I should begin by defining each of them in operational fashion for the purposes of this analysis.