The Uncesored War

"The Uncensored War"

By Daniel C. Hallin

"The Uncensored War," by Daniel C. Hallin is a kind of a document book highlighting the media coverage of the Vietnam War. The author writes about the hard times as well as American views during and before the war. It discusses the war in two separate parts. What the media thought of the Vietnam while the whole thing was still escalating and how they felt while we were at war in Vietnam.

In the first part, Escalation and News Management, Hallin focuses a lot on the events which occurred while Kennedy was still in office. Due to Kennedy, and how he perceived the events which were occurring in Vietnam, Vietnam became a top news story here in America. The New York Times also played a big role in how Americans viewed the war and it was the New York Times who would build the tension between the press and the government. The press would publish things and topics which the government did not want the public to know, thus the government accused the media of trying to ruin Americas efforts in Vietnam. The media would report the events taking place and emphasize the fact that it is not a war, which would make the government look bad because Americans were dying yet we were not committed to a war. The American soldiers in Vietnam began to view the media as an enemy, opposed to where the media is usually the soldier's friend back in America.

In the second part of "The Uncensored War," Hallin focuses on the war on television. The television was not around during World War Two or the Korean War so the Vietnam War became the first televised war. The television companies focused more on the negative during the war as opposed to focusing on the positive and America's advancements. The reason for this is that Americans wanted to see the blood a gore, so