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movements, search and
destroy missions that often
covered the same ground
over and over so you couldn't
measure whether you were
winning or losing In Vietnam
the way we measured that
was by the body counts." he
says, shaking his head in
disgust
"In Vietnam there weren't
the types of things that
created stories for people
back home to latch onto "
When veterans returned
home after a tour of duty in
Vietnam, they came home at
different times and never in
one large group, according to
Kamp “As far as most
veterans were concerned,
their war was over when they
came home "
Vietnam was also
America's longest war, with
plenty of time to pick up
strong opposition
“These criminals who
decimated Vietnam belong in
spirit to Hitler's Germany
where people were afraid to
speak out, and believed in
country over humanity, truth,
and justice," wrote R M Parts
1n a letter that appeared in the
Oregon Daily Emerald and
The Register Guard last
month "Barbarous Vets of
Vietnam are out of place
among free people, because
in a free society it is the
responsibility of citizens to
stand against government
when it is wrong "
The letter also contained
strong language condemning
the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial at a time when a
replica of ‘the Wall’ was on
display in Eugene
Others were just as
vehemently opposed to the
war in Vietnam There ex
isted during the Vietnam con
flict, an anti war movement
unprecedented in American
history During World War I
and World War II there was
some opposition to America
getting involved in those
wars, but nothing to match
the inestimable thousands of
people who took an active
part in the anti war move
ment of the late-60s and
early 70s
They criticized America for
getting involved in what they
called an unjust, dirty little
war Some blamed big
business or big government,
or both Many, like Parts,
blamed the veterans
themselves
By 1970, men returning
from Vietnam were being met
by jeering crowds They were
called baby killers and
fascists, among other things,
and they were sometimes spit
on as they walked through
airports or on city streets in
their uniforms It was hardly
the kind of welcome
American servicemen of
previous wars had received
“When we finally stopped,
there was something like a
sigh of relief rather than
parades and cheering." Kamp
says “There were a lot of
people who supported the
war, but there was nothing
left for them to hang onto
They just wanted to see the
war end
“There never could have
been a victory parade after
Vietnam."
America, admittedly, had
lost the war in Vietnam
Most people will never
forget the pictures of a sur
rounded American Embassy
in Saigon, with armed U S
Marines pointing their
weapons at the crowd These
were not the enemy These
were the people who America
had originally come to save
from their communist
neighbors to the north
There were pictures of
desperate Vietnamese who
had worked for the
U S.-backed government in
South Vietnam or for the
US government itself,
pleading for a way out of a
country being quickly overrun
by the North Vietnamese Ar
my. There was a particularly
telling photograph of an
American official in a white
shirt shoving his fist into the
face of a Vietnamese man as
the man attempts to board the
plane the American is leaving
on.
There were pictures of
mobs chasing taxiing planes
on foot, on mopeds, in jeeps
Pictures of a man’s legs dangl
ing from the undercarriage of
a jet he tried to stow away on,
only to meet his death when
he was crushed by the landing
gear
All of these images That
was another difference bet
ween Vietnam and other wars
— televised broadcasts with a
nightly diet of what was hap
pening over there and the
growing discontent that was
boiling on the homefront
Critics often blame the media
for helping to lose the war
“If the media had that kind
of effect, then, for example,
politicians could buy their way
into office by using the media,
which they can't,” says
University associate professor
of journalism, Lauren
Kessler "The media simply
do not have that massive af
feet across a society and, se
cond. I think history will show
that it was not a war the
French could win — it was
not a war anybody could
win
Kessler is the author of the
book. The Dissident Press,
which deals with the press
operating outside of
mainstream journalism She
reports that there has always
been dissenting voices,
especially during time of war
In her book, she describes the
process by which dissident
ideas are sometimes, if ever,
popularized in a society.
“The mainstream press, in
cluding network television
and the daily newspapers, ex
cept for a very few and except
for relatively late in the Viet
nam War, was in no way a
dissident press," she says Ac
cording to her, press
coverage in Vietnam was
similar to previous American
conflicts, with the exception
of television — "The cliche is
that Vietnam was the televi
sion war, that it brought the
war into millions of people s
homes every day on the six
o'clock news "
She describes the relation
ship of the press and the
military, at least for the ma
jority of the war. as being a
situation where the journalists
depended on the military as a
source for critical information
"You are still beholden to
your country for keeping yovi
alive, so there's certain things
you simply don't do as a jour
nalist. and one of them, in
general, is you don’t bite the
hand that feeds you." she
says
However, there are those
who would say that, indeed,
the media had bit the hand
that fed them Charles B
MacDonald is the former
deputy chief historian for
Southeast Asia at the U S.
Army Center 'for Military
History He believes the news
media did have a negative im
pact on the outcome of the
war
In an article printed in the
book. The Vietnam War —
The illustrated history of the
conflict in Southeast Asia,
MacDonald cites a number of
occasions throughout the
course of the war when, he
says, the media was under
mining operations in
Southeast Asia He specifical
ly mentions the creation by
the media of a “Dien Bien
Phu syndrome” during the
seige of Khe Sanh in early
1968, and he charges that
"the news media s negative
handling of the Tet offensive
caused the President to yield
to increased pressure from
anti war critics” to proclaim
another bombing halt, and
yield to North Vietnamese
demands.
“Bias in the media was
primarily effective on the
Congress and on middle
level, civilian bureaucrats and
presidential advisers in
Washington,” MacDonald
wrote "Congressional
‘hawks’ fell silent, while
'doves’ coo-ed ever more
loudly Many civilian officials
reacted like the presidential
special assistant who noted
that whenever he read the of
ficial cables from Saigon, he
found them almost
hallucinatory’ in view of what
he had seen on television the
night before."
Kessler believes that a lot of
people found it hard to admit
America had lost the war in
Vietnam, and that they were
looking for a scapegoat to
blame “There’s people on
the right who have accused
the press of being on the left,
and there are people on the
left accusing them of being on
the right,” she observes “I’m
not saying the media are
blameless, but they're always
out there, exposed, and an
easy target ”
The war is over No longer
are there American troops in
Vietnam, but Vietnam still
haunts the men and women
who were there Some are
more touched by what went
on over there than others, but
none of them will be able to
forget Vietnam
The Vet Center in Eugene,
and other counseling facilities
across the country like it.
have been created to help