The Role Of The Tet Offensive In The Vietnam War

At public briefings, colloquially given the name “The Five O’clock Follies”, reporters were handed official information packets which were the “official word on the day’s events”. It was said these stories were carefully worded because “anyone could get their hands on these” and could be sold to the Vietcong and their sympathizers (Steinman 33). But, it is just as reasonable to believe that these briefings were about control of information.
The kind of news stories that the public had access to was extremely important to each of the Presidential Administrations during the Vietnam era. Vietnam was not just a war on communism in a small Southeast Asian country. In his book The “Uncensored” War, Daniel C. Hallin describes Vietnam as a “public
They were unsuccessful (Huebner 154).
The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war, especially where news coverage was concerned. The Johnson Administration had spent a lot of effort putting forth the message that the United States was winning the war. In fact, U.S. Officials and numerous journalists had been reporting steady progress. General William Westmoreland even announced, to the National Press Club, “I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing” (Dougan & Lipsman 127).
Tet was a shock and considered a “home front televisual disaster” as the attacks went a long way toward reducing Johnson’s credibility with his own people. Though reports from the battle showed losses for the enemy these were accompanied by “bloody and discouraging pictures” (Huebner 159). After Tet press coverage became much more skeptical “and the impact of that change on administration policy and public opinion became the subject of an extensive, highly partisan debate for decades afterwards” (Huebner
He remained utterly professional on the air until the Tet Offensive. Two weeks after Tet, Cronkite traveled to Vietnam and was very disturbed by what he found there. Upon his return he reported that he now believed the war to be “mired in stalemate”. The loss of Cronkite’s trust was “a major casualty of Lyndon Johnson’s success offensive” and greatly affected Johnson’s morale. It was a week later when he announced he would not be running for reelection (Dougan & Lipsman 128).
The wave of violence being reported from Vietnam was not finished. On March 16, 1968, a group of soldier, known as Charlie Company, was sent into the village of My Lai with orders to kill everyone