Hearst responded "You furnish the pictures and I"ll furnish the war." The USS Maine mysteriously sank off the coast of Cuba, and a painting of this was sent to Hearst. Even though it was never discovered what made the USS Maine sink, Hearst printed a story that said Spain was directly responsible. The American people were so outraged that they called for immediate action against Spain. Congress had no choice but to declare war on Spain. From this war the United States established itself as a superpower, overpowering the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. This affected the United States, in that, Hawaii became the fiftieth state and Puerto Rico is pushing hard to become the fifty-first. What Hearst did was one of the earliest and most notorious examples of yellow, or tabloid, journalism. He used the power of the media to mislead the people for his own gains. Today the terms slander and libel have been created to combat yellow journalism. Through the media Hearst created a major war in American history which led to the annexation of territory, the fiftieth state and helped set the stage for yellow journalism and its role in American policy. .
More recently, one of the most famous and events in American history was the Vietnam conflict. Today debate still continues about the Vietnam conflict. Should the United States have been there or not? Few people realize, however, that the United States was present more then 10 years before war even broke out. What most people knew at the time, they learned from the media. The Vietnam conflict is often referred to as the first war on TV. Every day people sat around the television at dinner time to find out the latest news from Vietnam. This immediate and easy access to the war led to a period of protest and riots throughout the United States. Young people across the nation stood up and voiced their opinions. The National Guard and riot police had to be sent into several colleges to restore order.