The US left Vietnam 50 years ago today. The media hasn't learned its lesson

Last edited Wed Apr 30, 2025, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Norman Solomon

The myth that news coverage turned Americans against the war persists. In fact, it was largely complicit in perpetuating the conflict

Wed 30 Apr 2025 10.00 EDT

The last helicopter liftoff from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon on 30 April 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam war. Fifty years later, mythology about US media coverage of the war is locked into the faulty premise that news outlets were pivotal in causing Americans to turn against it. Some say that mainstream media undermined a noble war effort, while others say that coverage alerted the public to realities of an unjust war. Both assertions are wrong.

Scapegoating the media fits neatly into “stab in the back” theories of Americans who can’t stand the fact that their country lost a war to impoverished Vietnamese fighters. And praising the media as catalysts for the nation’s roused conscience gives undue credit while fostering illusions about mainstream news coverage of America’s wars.

Today, the bulk of the populace remains nearly clueless about what the Pentagon is up to on several continents. Fleeting news reports about US missile strikes on various countries – including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia since last year – habitually rely on official sources. In addition, the Costs of War project at Brown University reports, the United States has “military operations and programs run out of civilian departments for military purposes in at least 78 countries”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/us-vietnam-war-media

I also remember from that time frame that you couldn't vote if you were 18.............but you could get drafted ................I also remember when all the birthdays were put in a barrel ...............mine was 212.......