The Vietnam war was like no other before it. It certainly was not a war embellished with all the glamour of the World wars that came before it.

Unlike the first and second world wars and even the Korean war, the Vietnam war seemed to be a war of blurred lines. Like the current war in Bosnia, there seemed to be a problem in identifying just who the bad guys were, when all along, one might argue, they [the bad guys] were really us, the Americans, taking advantage of another catastrophe. slipping ourselves into a favorable imperialistic, profitable position, under the guise of anti-communism.

There was a certain amount of patriotism involved in the Vietnam war, but nothing like the all-out fervor that consumed Americans in the other wars. No one seemed to question whether or not we should go to Europe and fight the big wars. They were not only good for Europe, but good for America. Vietnam on the other hand was just some little country, of people that really were foreign to us. We could not relate to them.

Vietnam did not seem to be a good fight. One in which the enemy was clear

Along with the seeming disinterest of the American press, was the issue of news. There was no news in Vietnam. Not the sort that could really rouse the general population. Nothing in the day to day workings of Vietnam, including even some of its more sordid political moments could motivate the American public.In other words, Vietnam could not sell papers.

The American press's information was simple and somewhat shallow, guided by the inadequate and innacurate information, by a country that was continually trying to conduct its political affairs without the knowledge and guidance of its American supporters.

One of the first stories to come out of Vietnam and foreshadow America's future involvement appeared in the New York Times. This article was not by anyone based in Hanoi, but by a correspondent that happened to be there. Other stories began to follow, all with a tone that seemed to know what America was up to. The Articles stressed the efforts of the Vietnamese people to withstand the coming of an American agenda in Southeast Asia. They were not happy with the U.S. installment of Diem as leader. the press reports described him as an American "lackey".

At this time American "Advisers" are also sent into Vietnam to help train the South Vietnamese. These men are sent in with the apparent mission of training soldiers. They themselves are not supposedly there under any American military context.

At home, the press was coming into its own, "Journalism was completing its development from a craft into a profession."[3] "Gone, or nearly so, were the days when reporters were only slightly more respectable than the criminals and corrupt businessmen and politicians they covered. College-, even graduate-school-trained, reporters were better paid, and were, especially at the top levels of the profession, people of national influence, the professional and social peers of judges, senators, even presidents.[4]

For their part - the American Government was taking what little information it could get and twisting it for its own use. Feeding an American public only the choicest bits of highly filtered information.

Some topics in this essay:
South Vietnam, South Vietnamese, American Government, , WW II, America Vietnam, Saigon November, Southeast Asia, American Society, Asia Asia, vietnam war, american involvement vietnam, american involvement, involvement vietnam, south vietnam, american press, american government, threat communism, diem leader, american public, southeast asia, diem leader south, leader south vietnam, government particularly presidency, vietnam war war,