Commonwealth Journal; Vietnam and the Media

Dr. Paul Camacho is associate director of the joiner Center for the Study of War and social consequences of UMass Boston. And that in itself is a mouthful. Paul the Welcome to the program. Thank you. It's nice to have you here. War and social consequences we thank about some of the things that have happened over the last 20 years in particular we think about the Vietnam War which was the first war that was literally fought in living rooms in the United States and all over the world for that matter. The media has a great deal or had a great deal to do with with war and with propaganda. And I think of my early days in school when I went to the movies during World War Two and saw a Movietone knew and you saw World War 2 and what was going on there but it wasn't exactly the same thing as seeing it on a daily basis as we did with the Vietnam War and the saturation that the living War of the TV brought in a kind of saturation point. On one hand it brought in a lot more cops a lot of controversy. On the other hand it may have numbed people. I don't know what the tradeoff is. There's

those there's a school of thought that says the media really had a great effect on the conduct of the war and on the political decisions and strategies about how the war was to be conducted while it was going on. And there's a school of thought that says they didn't really they they how old and they affected some domestic programs and ideas but they really didn't have as much of an effect as we've been led to believe in the last 10 years. But wouldn't didn't the media upset the military a little bit considering the fact that they were reporting on certain things let's go back to the Vietnam war and General William Westmoreland for example citing all kinds of statistics and the media was coming back and saying hey it's not according to what we say. I think there were three three demarcation lines. One was going backwards the final straw was tat before that was the Harrison solace Barry series of 1966 67 and before that it was

the whole Coorong DMN and 63. And those are the first time you had doubts about what was happening because the GM crew almost upset the apple cart but that was over ridden. The Harrison Solsbury series in The New York Times us 22 articles. Question for the first time the credibility the truthfulness of the government and I think since that was the New York Times it lent a tremendous amount of legitimacy to the IT THEY WERE movement and it caused a great deal of problems for the administration. A good book on that is confirm a do not which has. A discussion about a particular issue of the house and so it's very serious in one of the chapters. Then Tet and the reporting of Tet which created a great negative view but as Phil grueling has pointed out a number of times it was also the fault of the

administration for setting itself up by continuously telling the public that everything was under the under control we were the best and the brightest we had all the little bugs figured out because then that can't happen. It's impossible to have happened so therefore when something blows up you know there's disenchantment because you were the public was enchanted to begin with. It was interesting when we go back all those years and compare what happened from 942 to 1945 and then what happened during Korea and then of course what happened in Vietnam and seeing the different ways these three conflicts were being covered. You had brought up something that I found very interesting before we started take the program when you and I were talking that in World War 2 around 1943 or so people started to get on the bandwagon and the war not because of patriotism but because of selfishness. Yeah. You know there was this is that's been of that sort of history has been evaporated but on one hand they were real horror about the casualties I think when Life

magazine is I get it when Life magazine published the pictures of dead American soldiers which was the first time the American public had ever seen that dead American soldiers the Terro there was a public outcry about maybe we should negotiate and settle with Japan. And on the other hand if you talk to some of the some different people they'll tell you those who were back here stateside unaffected by the war violence of the where their children you know they wanted their children home. And also they were angry. They get tired of using the gas ration card. Women got tired of not having access to many decent public goods so people were tired of the war because what it took what it took away from in their daily lives also tiring of the casualty rate but it's as much of the selfish interests of the goods but that was society organizing to conduct the war. Vietnam they want to avoid that. Issue so they had the rotation dates and everything here at home. The tradeoff of course was that nobody had the

faintest idea what was going on and after a while it just created a lot of confusion and dissension. And then when it affected the daily lives of people and in the terms of the protest and political instability there was a withdrawal from there. But was it from a different reason. There is any angle Puddy of it see things have changed since say World War 2 and immediately following World War 2 when we had motion pictures like The Longest Day John Wayne and all the war movies. All of these different things that really stirred our patriotism that stirred our feeling as opposed to today now 40 years later where things have essentially changed considerably because there were a lot of people that were totally against the Vietnam War. I tell you it's a question about that. Things have changed. What may have changed is that the message delivered in the movies has become ever more simplified and reduced

at the notion of altruism Dick notion of my country I'm fighting like from my country as the war two movies would betray it to a personal vendetta. The Rambo series and the Chuck Norris series and trilogies and all of that stuff have beautiful examples of that it's the individual I want my put to a war theme and also as part of market madness. In the early part with say from say 68 through 78 the Vietnam veteran in the movies and particularly on TV was betrayed as a devious psychopath from 80 78 on a status which especially censored by the one he's now a right wing hero. Well that's because right wing hero are psychopath. Yeah you can take away this no all the flag waving and some of the stuff you find out that really. And my

deference only he it's good because he's writ with a rap and a flag but he took away the flag what's really operating on this person is this person of and vengeance and they've they've obscured the history and the complex issue issues associated with Vietnam are already bore particularly those with Vietnam. It's interesting too to compare television series for example I think of MASH and the Korean conflict on one hand it was treated with so much humor and extremely well written and acted and something currently for example like China Beach or platoon. That is an entirely different look or outlook on the conflicts the two different conflicts. Yeah I think again one hand market madness too. They need an idea. They need an exotic type to to sell. So you went from deviant to hero. Also the and there's

also this part of a political How much is a market how much is ideology. For example in the 60s all the documentaries were stopped from entering into the country all a lot of European and Eastern European documentaries look taking another look at Vietnam were stopped by the State Department ostensibly to protect the American public. From what I'm not sure but to protect the American public here we had two documentaries one television documentary of the 60 Minutes variety done by Peter Davis called the selling of the Pentagon that came on the air and was off the air so fast it made everybody said spin that was a smoking indictment about I'm selling around the world in America and selling the next one of course was Davis's hearts and minds. Which is obviously an anti-war approach but it's a very good and it was well done it provides very provoking. And that lasted about three weeks in the theaters. As far as the TV like tour of duty we talked about we had a film conference the

director it indicated the army supplies helicopters and yes an exchange that we let them review our scripts but it we also agreed to part ways if we came to a disagreement. But if they part ways they don't get their helicopters to use. So this scripts are always on this individual love affair big deal bonding with you when you ever see one about General Carl Turner in weapons selling bad trucks bad jeeps crime corruption fraud currency manipulation Air America. You know that tie heroin in Southeast Asia the politics of that how that's never got in this eye any of those real trucks don't work in a logistic backtrack all the way to companies back in the United States. Friendly fire mortar rounds that fall short of delivery and fall short of rounds don't work trucks missing all of that stuff in the big logistic billion dollar nightmare you want and you probably never will because it talks about what the war is really about. You know which was about money.

Some interesting points Paul and I thank you for coming down and spending the time with us. Alrighty thank you that my guest Dr. Paul Camacho associate director the joiner Center for the Study of War and social consequences at UMass Boston. I have a green. One day. This nation will rise up. Live out the true meaning of its. Real home these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created beings. Now I would agree.

That one day our. Song played some fable. Will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream. One day even the state of Mississippi a state sweltering with heat. In just the. Sweltering heat of oppressive. Freedom is free. You have been listening to the award winning Commonwealth Journal weekly magazine a feature news and information brought you as a public service of the University of Massachusetts in Boston and WNBA FM. This program was made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Executive producer Tom Callahan producer Kevin du Rocher your letters are important to us. Right o said

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