The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam / Edition 1

by Daniel C. Hallin

Overview

This book was finished in the tenth year after the end of the Vietnam War. The year 1985 was also the year of Rambo, and of a number of other celebration of the Vietnam War in popular culture. It was the year Congress cut off aid to the "Contras" in Nicaragua, and then abruptly reversed itself and approved "humanitarian" aid to support the guerrilla war in that country. The "Vietnam Syndrome" showed signs of giving way tot he "Grenada Syndrome": the fear of repeating the Vietnam experience showed signs of giving way to a desire to relive it in an idealized form. The nation seemed deeply confused about its identity as an actor in world politics, and thus particularly vulnerable to appealing myths. So it is a good time to take a sober look back and the nation's consciousness during the Vietnam War itself—which as we shall see, despite the popular image of an independent media demolishing the nation's illusions, was also governed by a powerful mythology, born in part out of the traumas of earlier wars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520065437
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	04/14/1989
Edition description:	First Edition, With a new preface
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Daniel C. Hallin is Professor of Communications and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

PART I Escalation and News Management, 1961-1965
CHAPTER 2 "A Legitimate Part of that Global Commitment,"
1961-1963
CHAPTER 3 "It Does Not Imply Any Change of Policy Whatever,"
1964-1965

PART II The War on Television, 1966-1973
CHAPTER 4 The "Uncensored War," 1965-1967
CHAPTER 5 "We Are on Our Way Out," 1968-1973
CHAPTER 6 Conclusion

NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX A: Abbreviations
APPENDIX B: Code Book with Marginals for Some Variables
INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"A first-rate book which throws new light on the topic...based on scholarly analysis of what actually was published and broadcast, judged in the context of historical events.... The first serious revisionist history of the role of the press in Vietnam."—The Washington Post Book World. "The value of Hallin's study lies not only in his research but also in his grasp of the real failure of American journalism in Vietnam—a failure to give its readers or viewers even the most rudimentary understanding of the real issues and true nature of the war."—The Philadelphia Inquirer. "This splendid study of the way the media actually covered the war is among the best and most important books published on the war in Vietnam."—History Book Review

From the Publisher