Intel on Vietnam
fe...@mscd.edu
rmcg...@igc.org wrote:
>
> A Book Review -- A collection of reporting on Vietnam.
> [In 1959] TIME magazine was upbeat about Vietnam: "The presence of the
> Americans symbolized one of the main reasons why South Viet Nam, five years
> ago a new nation with little life expectancy, is still independent and
> free and getting stronger..." 16 years later the public and most of the
> American press turned against the war. That was due to the words and
> pictures from the correspondents sent to Vietnam. The most remarkable
> reporting has been collected in a two-volume compendium called Reporting
> Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1969 and 1969-1975, published by the
> (Library of America). The work of 80 journalists, with a sampling of
memorable
> reportage from the home front. There are stories by the New York Times'
> David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan that peel away the optimism of American
> officialdom. Or the devastating comparison by Washington Post's Richard
> Liarwood of inflated, official battle reports against the accounts of
> correspondents on the scene. Reporting Vietnam makes one wonder
> at America's ability to sustain the war effort as long as it did, given
> the grim news and harsh truths that were being sent home from the front.
> Was no one listening? Was the power of the government information machine
> so vast as to overcome the real news from Vietnam? Time 11/23/98.
Really! A lot of my roots are in SW Mo. Having been there many times during
the war, I fail to see where any interest was taken in "grim news and harsh
truths that were being sent home from the front." These were people who knew
sacrifices had to be make = Hey my Uncle in one Small town had been killed in
WWII = Their only child and they never had another! Besides my Great Great
Grandma around in the Sixties in the same small town was not so conservative
as to me facist. She could have run the CIA. The Hated Mario Savio for
starting all the trouble in America and Jane Fonda. As was the going logic
of the day, any Preident could bomb and get high ratings or ask for peace and
get high ratings = a lesson Clinton has learned. As with the Clinton info,
much of the war was not reported on in the papers or was burried. Life went
on = don't think there ever was an anti-war protest in SW Mo. So for SW Mo.
anyway I just don't see any such reaction form SW Mo = whose grim news and
harsh realities from the front was much worse during WWII!
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