What was the media like in the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

There was almost no control over the media during the Vietnam War. They filmed anything anytime. There were some rare exceptions, as always; during the Lam Son 719 invasion of Laos in 1971, newsmen were filming knocked out US Patton tanks being dragged into the perimeter wire by other Pattons. This was the chaotic phase of the campaign, in which the ARVN's were in full retreat from Laos, and the Americans were catching the brunt of fast retreating ARVN M41 light tanks, with NVA PT76 tanks in hot pursuit.

US tanks were trying to keep the path open for the retreating army, and while doing so the Pattons were being engulfed with NVA anti- tank fire via quickly emplaced anti-tank mines, which were being used by the NVA to channel (funnel) US tanks into kill zones. Newsmen had a field day filming the smoking scenes of dust from the moving vehicles and smoke from the exploding mines and rockets. Finally US officers ordered the men to confiscate the cameras from the newsmen and expose their film. Newsmen surrendered their cameras, and GIs opened the cameras and exposed the film; in cases where the men didn't know how to open the cameras, the newsmen removed the film themselves and surrendered the film to the GIs who then handed them over to the officers; who then exposed the film.

Answer 2

I was ages 5 thru 11 during the years of the Vietnam War. What I remember every night on the news was the body count. They used to actually say how many servicemen were killed that day.

I remember feeling very squared abut the concept of death and I thought it was such a shame that every evening they had to report about dying in a foreign country.

I still BELIEVE there are Americans alive in SE Asia

Answer 3

"Was" (war's been over for almost 40 years). The role of the "mass" media during the war was to bring it (visual/sound) to the public.