News coverage of the war was on the rise, however a deterrent for anti-war reporting in 1964, when the war was escalating, was the fact that the government still had a grasp on it’s officials. Government officials weren’t talking to the press, which meant that information was often from sources with questionable credibility and were too unreliable to print. Much of the negative press covered by the reports came from covering protests and this was not considered a reliable source for facts about the war. Also, opinion pages did not exist during the early 1960’s so there was not a wide range of press dedicated to extensive criticism of the war (Hallin 88). Because of this, the anti-war sentiment in the U.S. was not a major factor in 1964 as far as influence on Government decision. Knowledge of the war in general was still considerably low in 1964, as “one out of fours Americans was still oblivious to the war in Southeast Asia” (Hammond 31). Communication problems also existed in Vietnam at the time, and relaying a story was not always easy. Things would begin to change dramatically, however, as the U.S. involvement escalated to the point of a heavy use of ground troops. Once Americans were fighting in heavy numbers on the ground, national attention in the U.S. grew immensely.

eption of the war as the stories, true and false, that were reported gave the American people a face to an ugly war.

Such stories of government cover-up left the Nixon administration in dissaray,

The tide began to turn regarding the U.S. government and the media as the American press began to lose faith in Diem and his politics. The flow of information in South Vietnam was completely controlled by Diem and his government and as South Vietnam was supposed to be at the helm of the operation in Vietnam, much of the information about the war came from the censored word of the South Vietnamese officials. Commenting on the censored media sources that came from South Vietnam, William Hammond, author of the book, Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War, says that the media was, “relying on statistics supplied by South Vietnamese officials, who well knew that the Americans wanted high enemy body counts and generous estimates of the population loyal to the government” (Hammond 4). Diem withheld information that the press felt was vital and deported many reporters who crossed him. After an unsuccessful battle in 1963, in which the U.S. lost a number of helicopters and their onboard crew, the press found that strategic error and “reluctant Vietnamese infantrymen” seemed to be the cause of the failed mission (Hammond 8). The U.S. government attempted to portray the mission as successful and, signifying a major point of divide between the government and the media, the media turned to “the word of angry South Vietnamese officials, indignant U.S advisors, and bitter American pilots who risked their lives daily without recognition” as their source of information regarding the incident and incidents to come (Hammond 8). The situation worsened when Diem began to suppress the Buddhist community of Vietnam who were protesting the war. The Buddhists were a neutral group who, although labeled as communists, had refused support by the North Vietnamese. Suppressed by Diem and finding no refuge in the U.S. government, the Buddhist turned to the press as an outlet for their message of peace. These reports, including the vivid images of Buddhists burning themselves in protest of the war, along with the ever-growing animosity between the press, Diem, and the U.S. government, resulted in a picture of the war, painted by the media, that became increasingly uglier and controversial by the day.

The coverage of the ground troops in Vietnam brought new factors into the realm of information that could be found regarding the war. One of these factors was the apparent unproportional share of effort that was coming from U.S. troops. A rising number of repor

Some topics in this essay:
South Vietnamese, President Johnson, Vietnam War, South Vietnam, Gulf Tonkin, Suppressed Diem, Vietnam Whereas, Vietnamese Nixon, Offensive American, North Vietnamese, south vietnamese, south vietnam, media coverage, ground troops, vietnam war, american people, north vietnamese, president johnson, tet offensive, television coverage, south vietnamese troops, ground troops vietnam, south vietnamese officials, tet offensive 1968, troops vietnam brought,