Essay Database
The significance of the Tet Offensive and how it effected the outcome of war in Indochina.
Date Submitted: 08/20/2004 00:24:10
The Tet Offensive
The American government had been telling their people that the communists were weakening and that they were now largely in control. What they saw through their television sets of the Tet Offensive contradicted this propaganda.
Fifty million watched as the ARVN killed prisoners, innocent civilians, and South Vietnam was bombed. The US government was now unable to portray the war as clean, simple, and easily won as the media in South Vietnam
Is this Essay helpful? Join now to read this particular paper
and access over 800,000 just like this GET BETTER GRADES
and access over 800,000 just like this GET BETTER GRADES
each night. Images of the cruelty of war, and the exposure of false military propaganda were a new thing, Vietnam being the first war to be widely covered by television media. According to Marshall McLuhan, "Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the lounge rooms of America - not on the battlefields of America." It was the major contributing factor to the anti-war movement's growth.
Need a custom written paper? Let our professional writers save your time.