American Valor Quarterly Issue 1 - Winter 2007 | Page 20

The War in Vietnam and the Media’s Role By Emily Tibbitts Editor’s note: Emily Tibbitts is a junior at Ashland University, majoring in Political Science and Electronic Media Production with a minor in journalism. She is an Ashbrook Scholar in the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs, and a recipient of Ashland’s Presidential Scholarship. Emily served as an intern with the American Veterans Center in 2007, with her major research project being a study of the Vietnam War, the men and women who served there, and the media’s role in the war. After much hard work, and diligent research, the final product is the following story. The Early Years The war in Vietnam was not a war like any previously experienced by the American people. The United States was looking for a victory that was non-descript, un-defined and largely misunderstood, making it hard to comprehend why we were there, why we were not winning, and even more importantly, what winning would look like. With the United States military present only as advisors to the South Vietnamese Military for the first years of conflict, it was hard to convey the importance of the war, or why it was even our war. Americans were accustomed to battlefronts and pins on a map that showed progress against a clear enemy who posed an obvious threat to our nation’s security. But in Vietnam, we were fighting a war that did not appear to be our