American History

Vietnam War Name: Institution: Date: With America intent on halting the spread of communism and extending her national interests there was initial support of the Vietnam War by American citizens. With the northern part of Vietnam already in the hands of Viet Cong communists, insurgencies in the South aimed at facilitating a communist takeover led to a change in American policy of indirect involvement in the country America culminated in the invasion of Vietnam (Wiest, 2998). America gave both financial and military support to Frenchmen who had control over Vietnam before the Vietnam War (Wiest, 2008). This paper delves into the Vietnam War impact on American response, political concerns and domestic policies. With American’s increasingly watching television as a source of information in the 1960’s the initial reports mainly broadcasted the government’s position on the war. In many cases the government engaged in war propaganda through the media, and this led to support of the war at the earlier stages (Gorman & McLean, 2009). The American citizens placed much trust in broadcast news as reported by the mass media. Essentially, the country was united after the end of WWII, and with the government deciding on what was to be aired many people believed that the war meant to foster democracy and end communism in Vietnam. Thus, with every indication that the war helped to liberate the Vietnamese from the control of communists, there was no independent source of information to collaborate this with many believing broadcast news without questioning. Gradually the voice of the anti war movement became louder from the 1960’s onwards, with many left leaning university students and tutors being at the forefront of this movement. Additionally, the Civil rights movement was prominent during the period and rights activists also called for end to the war. Another group of American’s opposed the war on the grounds that th...