During the Tet offensive, only 1536 Americans died and out of the 85,000 Viet Cong soldiers, 45,000 of them died (more than half of them) . It was constantly shown on the news day by day, showing nothing but the Americans getting the hound kicked out of them. When the reporters went down to Saigon on January 30, 1968 got the story of the lifetime. This one event changed the mindset of the war. The Tet Offensive was the start of the down fall of the American forces in the Vietnam war because anti war riots sparked due to the lies from the media, the failure of leadership by the president, and the misrepresentation of the battle.
To start off, many anti war riots broke out and rebellions in American held South Vietnam. Many of the American people did not want to enter a war where they were losing, it is common sense. In an article written by Phillip B. Davidson, he states that “the reporters simply filled their own ‘facts’ when they didn’t have real ones” (Davidson 123). The misrepresentation of …show more content…
Many reports by major news stations showed said that the Americans lost many of their men and that it was a total American defeat. This one event truly showed the statement “the pen is mightier than the sword” (Davidson 123). “Only recently has the media’s misreporting of the Tet offensive been spotlighted” (Davidson 123). This event has only just been recently investigated, it has been years since the attack. This (as stated in the first paragraph) sparked fear and confusion within the American people. As the topic started rising throughout the American public’s televisions, “Gen. Maxwell Taylor wrote: ‘In forming the popular concept of what happened during the Tet offensive, TV was the dominant factor’” (Davidson 124). Gen. Taylor’s view was backed up later on by President Nixon, saying that the television’s reporting of the attack demoralized the home front (Davidson
To start off, many anti war riots broke out and rebellions in American held South Vietnam. Many of the American people did not want to enter a war where they were losing, it is common sense. In an article written by Phillip B. Davidson, he states that “the reporters simply filled their own ‘facts’ when they didn’t have real ones” (Davidson 123). The misrepresentation of …show more content…
Many reports by major news stations showed said that the Americans lost many of their men and that it was a total American defeat. This one event truly showed the statement “the pen is mightier than the sword” (Davidson 123). “Only recently has the media’s misreporting of the Tet offensive been spotlighted” (Davidson 123). This event has only just been recently investigated, it has been years since the attack. This (as stated in the first paragraph) sparked fear and confusion within the American people. As the topic started rising throughout the American public’s televisions, “Gen. Maxwell Taylor wrote: ‘In forming the popular concept of what happened during the Tet offensive, TV was the dominant factor’” (Davidson 124). Gen. Taylor’s view was backed up later on by President Nixon, saying that the television’s reporting of the attack demoralized the home front (Davidson