Media and the Military :: Media Argumentative Persuasive Argument

Media and the Military During the Vietnam struggle the media was left unchecked and brought the struggletime images of death and whipping into Americas living room. Theseimages served as morale killers and eventu bothy turned much of the ordinaryagainst its own government. During the Gulf War on the other hand, themilitary filtered what reached the publics bosom and morale was kept to alltime highs. In wartime the government should be able to manipulate publicopinion by controlling the media. War is not pretty, and it is not for the weak at heart. Images ofwar should not be broadcast into living rooms live. During the Vietnamconflict this is what happened. Pictures and real time image of our troopsbeing slaughtered during competitivenesss of the Tet offensive and the siege of KheSahn were sent home for all of America to see (Klein 50-51). Again, war isnot pretty and the way you sustain morale up is you dont let the public knowhow bad war rightfully is. Television is one of t he some powerful tools of media and by themid(prenominal) 1960s television had become the most important source for news formost of the American public, and beyond that, perhaps, the most powerfulsingle influence on the public. (Hallin 106) So people trusted whatreporters like Walter Cronkite were telling them. They believed it whenNBC journalists told them things like, the Marines are so bogged down inHue that nobody will predict when the battle would endmore than 500marines have been wounded and over one hundred dead since the in Hue began. (Klein51) Dont bring out the wrong idea though, these things really happened but thepublic didnt need to know it. The constitution and 1st amendment cool off mean something butnational security should come first. People rampage all over the countryin anti war protests should be an issue of national security. Without thesupport of your homefront no country can get a war, especially a foreignwar (Franklin 250). It is impossible to get supp ort at home when NBC isshowing them pictures of their boys getting massacred every wickedness on thenightly news. On the other hand, during the Gulf War in Iraq the horrors of warstill existed, maybe not to the same extent, but they were on that pointnonetheless. These horrors however where kept out of our living rooms by positive filtering by the US army. Now the army didnt just seize tapesand cross off _or_ out bad parts. Very few reporters and cameras were allowed to thefront lines.