The Nixon Years: Vietnam and Watergate

Objectives

To understand the impact of the media on the Vietnam War.

To understand the impact of the Vietnam War on the media.

Vietnam War and the Media

©Reasons for the war

©Reporting on the war

©Confrontations of the war

©Impact of the war on media

Vietnam and Watergate

Ø      Trust

Ø      Trust in the military.

Ø      Trust in the presidency.

Ø      Trust in the press.

Reporting on Vietnam

©Time magazine criticized its colleagues who criticized the war

A Different Conflict

©     US. is split about the purpose of the war

©     Cooperation between the media and military vanished with the Vietnam

            War

Reporting on Vietnam

©     Early war coverage played a supportive  role

©     Reporters were dubbed the “Saigon Press Corps”

Confrontations

©     Press v. military

©     Press v. public

©     Press v. government

Press v. Military

©     Five o’clock follies

©     “Body-count” statistics

©     “Precision bombing” raids

The Players in the Press-Military War

©     David Halberstam

©     Neil Sheehan

©     Harrison Salisbury

©     Malcome Browne

©     Morley Safer

What the Players Wrote About

©     Nature of the Vietnamese conflict

©     Danger of win-at-any cost policy

What the Players Wrote About

©     Military deliberately falsified information

©     Military withheld information detrimental to the continued belief in eventual success of U.S. policies

Press v. Public

©     Morley Safer’s “Burning of Village of Cam Ne”

©     Harrison Salisbury’s “Reports from the Belly of the Beast”

Morley Safer

©     “Burning of Cam Ne”

©     First time the public  learns that something is wrong in Vietnam

Morley Safer

©     “Film was too realistic”

©     U.S. soldiers should not be criticized

©     Presentation was one-sided

Harrison Salisbury

©     First to obtain visa to visit North Vietnam

©     Observations contradicted claims of U.S. bombing program’s success

©     Americans questioned the credibility of the press

Press v. Public

©     Public flogs the press

©     Tet Offensive

Press v. Government

©     Military/Government blame media for loss of undeclared war by swaying public opinion

Press v. Government

©     President Nixon fought back using Vice President Spiro Agnew

©     First time a ranking federal official made direct attacks on those reporting and commenting on the news

Press v. Government

©     Attack 1:

©     “Networks and newspapers exercised too powerful an influence over public opinion”

Press v. Government

©     Attack 2:

©     “Network management used commentators with a preponderant ‘Eastern Establishment bias and for failing to provide a ‘wall of separation’ between news and comment”

Channels of Anti-War Sentiment

©     Campus teach-ins

©     Student, church, and labor groups

©     Peace organizations

©     The radical press

©     Underground press

Watergate

The Plumbers

Fear that antiwar demonstrators pledged to stop the government

Fear that radicals might bomb the Capitol

Fear by Nixon

Actions by Plumbers

©     Broke into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office

©     Developed list of 20 political enemies

©     Disrupted campaign of Democratic candidates

©     Watergate break-in

Nixon’s Fears

©Secret bombing of neutral Cambodia

©Upheaval at college campuses

©Riots

©Marches

©Burnings

©Trashings

Pentagon Papers

©     An in-depth history of  American involvement in Indo-China beginning in 1945

©     47 volumes revealed that 4 administrations had lied to Congress and the public about U.S. military and political actions

in these countries

Pentagon Papers

The Plot

©     Ellsberg took copy from Rand Corp. and leaked it to several publications

The Battle

©     The Press

©     New York Times published long selections from it on the front page

©     The Government

©     Justice Department filed a restraining order against further

                       publication

©     The Courts

©     Supreme Court decided in favor the newspapers

The Break-in

©     The McCord Letter

©     Political pressure applied to defendants to pled guilty

©     Perjury occurred

©     Others were involved though their names did not come out in court

    The Cover-up

©     What?

©     Money laundered through Mexican banking connections

©     Why?

©     Dirty tricks

©      

The Hearings

©     Link dirty tricks to White House

Nixon and the Press

©     Press nonessential

©     Remained isolated

©     Executed end runs with TV

Impact of Watergate

©     The Media

©     The Presidency

©     The Public

Impact of Watergate

©     Cynicism of politicians.

©     Changes in reporting news.

©     Public figures suspect.

©     Adversarial journalism.

©     Use of anonymous sources.

©     Investigative journalism.

Impact of Watergate

©     Responsibility to bare evil and help right what is wrong.

©     Journalists as celebrities.