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Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War Paperback – October 30, 1998

by William Hammond (Author)

4.1 17 ratings

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For many Americans during the Vietnam era, the war on the home front seemed nearly as wrenching and hardfought as the one in Southeast Asia. Its primary battlefield was the news media, its primary casualty the truth. But as William Hammond reveals, animosity between government and media wasn't always the rule; what happened between the two during the Vietnam War was symptomatic of the nation's experiences in general. As the "light at the end of the tunnel" dimmed, relations between them grew ever darker.

Reporting Vietnam is an abridgment and updating of Hammond's massive two-volume work issued by the Government Printing Office. Based on classified and recently declassified government documents—including Nixon's national security files—as well as on extensive interviews and surveys of press war coverage, it tells how government and media first shared a common vision of American involvement in Vietnam. It then reveals how, as the war dragged on, upbeat government press releases were consistently challenged by journalists' reports from the field and finally how, as public sentiment shifted against the war, Presidents Johnson and Nixon each tried to manage the news media, sparking a heated exchange of recriminations.

Hammond strongly challenges the assertions of many military leaders that the media lost the war by swaying public opinion. He takes readers through the twists and turns of official public affairs policy as it tries to respond to a worsening domestic political environment and recurring adverse "media episodes." Along the way, he makes important observations about the penchant of American officials for placing appearance ahead of substance and about policy making in general.

Although Richard Nixon once said of the Vietnam war, "Our worst enemy seems to be the press," Hammond clearly shows that his real enemies were the contradictions and flawed assumptions that he and LBJ had created. Reporting Vietnam brings a critical study to a wider audience and is both a major contribution to an ongoing debate and a cautionary guide for future conflicts.

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Editorial Reviews

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"Hammond succeeds in puncturing much of the mythology about the media— and doing so in a readable and thorough fashion."—Washington Post Book World

"Hammond depicts the tension between the armed services and the media as a game of strategy, one-upmanship, and high-stakes jockeying. Drawing on a thorough examination of military documents and newspaper and broadcast reports, he explains how the press allowed the military to bring back tear gas for use in the war, how various news organizations contradicted themselves and one another in describing the war’s unfolding, and how much of the American public came to feel that the war was a hopeless effort."—Publishers Weekly

"Today’s military professional can see throughout this text the birth of our modern public affairs doctrine. . . . a must read for any military officer or member of the national security community responsible for developing plans or strategies that may have an impact on public opinion."

—Naval War College Review

"Few issues have aroused more controversy than the role of the news media during the Vietnam War. Hammond demystifies the subject in a book that is scrupulously researched, authoritative, and, above all, readable."—Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History

"Reporting Vietnam is a classic journalism history and an essential work in helping understand America’s most controversial foreign conflict. It is not only the definitive account of Vietnam war reporting, but also an engrossing read."—Peter Arnett, CNN correspondent and author of Live from the Battlefield

"By far the best study of the press and armed services yet written."—Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Citizen Soldiers

From the Back Cover

Winner of the Richard W. Leopold Prize

"Few issues have aroused more controversy than the role of the news media during the Vietnam War. Hammond demystifies the subject in a book that is scrupulously researched, authoritative, and, above all, readable."--Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History

"By far the best study of the press and armed services yet written."--Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Citizen Soldiers

"Hammond depicts the tension between the armed services and the media as a game of strategy, one-upmanship, and high-stakes jockeying. Drawing on a thorough examination of military documents and newspaper and broadcast reports, he explains how the press allowed the military to bring back tear gas for use in the war, how various news organizations contradicted themselves and one another in describing the war's unfolding, and how much of the American public came to feel that the war was a hopeless effort."--Publishers Weekly

"Reporting Vietnam is a classic journalism history and an essential work in helping understand America's most controversial foreign conflict. It is not only the definitive account of Vietnam war reporting, but also an engrossing read."--Peter Arnett, CNN correspondent and author of Live from the Battlefield

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Press of Kansas; Revised ed. edition (October 30, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 376 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0700609954
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0700609956
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.05 x 0.87 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #998,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,790 in Vietnam War History (Books)
- #3,109 in Communication & Media Studies
- #3,888 in History & Theory of Politics

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4.1 17 ratings

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B. Johnson

Packed with Details on Military and Media Relations

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2002

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This book is simply outstanding for anybody who has an interest in how the military manages media relations or who wants a different perspective on the Vietnam War. An abridgement of Hammond's two-volume set, this book is still packed with details covering the war from start to finish, providing lessons that remain relevant for today's changing battlefield. As one who is involved in media relations for a living, there's hardly a page in the book that isn't highlighted for future reference. And as one who has read several books on Vietnam, covering everything from tactical operations to strategic objectives, this book put the war in perspective for me as no other book has. However, as I was pouring over every page and sharing what I learned with those around me, one of my colleagues said he had read it as well and found it one of the most laborious books he had ever opened. So perhaps it is not for everybody, but it's a book I will return to again and again as I continue to study the unique relationship forged between the military and the media. And I am also ordering the two-volume set so I can find the even greater detail that was left out of this book.

8 people found this helpful

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Paco

A thorough account of the long, painful U.S. military involvement in southeast Asia.

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2022

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I am enjoying the detailed documentation, supplanted by a thorough index of sources. I only wish the font in the book were a bit larger to assist reading with my weak eyes.

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Fenwick Anderson

Wonderful book. Easy Reading on a Controversial Topic

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2015

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A great book. Mandatory reading for everyone interested in how news reporters interacted with the military and the U.S. government during the Vietnam War. In beautiful and scholarly writing, William Hammond clearly makes the point that the press very definitely did not lose the Vietnam War.

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Frank Bellizzi

Essential to a Better Understanding of the Vietnam War

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2014

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William Hammond's book Reporting Vietnam is a "description of official efforts to manage the U.S. government's relations with the news media during the war." It is also "a synthesis and refinement" of two volumes on the subject previously published by the author, and totaling more than one thousand pages. The two earlier works dealt with the military and media in South Vietnam in the years 1962-68 and 1968-73. "This smaller work is for [a] broader audience. It contains all of the substance of its predecessors, less the dense background detail" (ix-x).

As his method of investigation, Hammond chose to read U.S. government files for the relevant years. He chose that particular archive because he was not necessarily interested in any and all news reports, but especially those that "drew the attention of officials in the United States and South Vietnam, especially when they conflicted with the official line on an event." Because he wanted to identify the points of friction between the military and the media, news reports that government officials thought were worthy of note became "the points of departure" for Hammond's case studies. Most of the news items had been originally published in the so-called "elite press," newspapers like the New York Times, and magazines like U.S. News & World Report. But some were written by various editorial writers and syndicated columnists, selected because these pieces "sometimes sustained the issues far longer than the news itself would have and provided the spur that prompted some action or reaction on the part of officials" (x).

What did Hammond's research reveal? His conclusion is that, early on in the war, news correspondents from the United States supported both the American soldier and the stated goals of the mission issued by U.S. officials. For their part, the military, in spite of consistent pressure from the Diem regime to restrict information, normally upheld and honored the rights of a free press. News people almost always stayed within the guidelines that had been designed by U.S. officials for the purpose of ensuring military security (291). In other words, at the beginning of the relationship between media and military, Vietnam largely resembled what had become standard during the two previous U.S. wars.

Hammond observes that growing, unprecedented hostility between media and military was rooted in the differences between Vietnam and earlier wars. Vietnam, he says, "was born in contradiction and grounded in ambiguity." Wanting to protect their political agendas, Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, "sought to enlist the military as spokesmen for their points of view." By 1972, the year in which President Nixon was elected to a second term, "many substantive news releases emanating from the military command in South Vietnam were drafted in Washington with only perfunctory input from agencies in the field" (292).

In neither case did this compromised tactic work for very long. By 1968, for example, President Johnson had issued statements that included so many inconsistencies, both the press and even some officials within the administration doubted General Westmoreland's report that the enemy had suffered many setbacks as a result of their Tet offensive. During the Nixon administration, claims of success led to hopes that were soon disappointed. Promises of an imminent withdrawal from Vietnam were followed by stories of escalation in Cambodia and Laos. As the press reported a conflicted U.S. stance and the inconsistencies that accompanied that stance, both the Nixon administration and the U.S. military almost completely withdrew from the media. In some instances, U.S. commanders took it upon themselves to fight back against the press. They refused, for example, to provide transportation for reporters in combat areas and either delayed or discontinued briefings. Effectively, "they demolished what remained of the military's standing with the press." By the end of 1972, "meaningful give-and-take had all but ceased on both sides" (294).

In such an environment, the U.S. government held at least a temporary advantage: the administration largely controlled the information on which the news media depended. Hammond says that what eventually broke the ensuing stalemate between the government and the news media was the American public, which chose to go "its own way." Americans, he says, followed "their own third course, exercising their own independence of mind, and displaying a substantial measure of contempt for all those in the press and government who had sought to manipulate them over the years." The American people, sick of the "many deaths and contradictions . . . moved to repudiate the earlier decision." When they did, it was relatively easy for the American press to follow. By contrast, the U.S. military "lacked the ability to do the same." Wanting to retain whatever honor they could and emotionally tied to the prospect of some sort of victory, leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces "fixed their anger on the press, the most visible element of the society that appeared to have rejected them" (296).

Hammond's research and the books he has written give a large measure of insight into why Americans hear the name "Vietnam" the way they do.

3 people found this helpful

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Barbara C. Marrs

Knowing the truth of why Vietnam happened

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2020

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A short history of how the Vietnam culture evolved. Knowing the people helps in knowing you can win or loose the battle.
The US government did not intend to win the war. It was all politics and the military paid the price.

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2015

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Great documentation well worth seeing!

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

Great book, great service.

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Craig Matteson

This book should be read by everyone. FANTASTIC!

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2004

This is a terrifically important analysis of the way the military and the press interacted during the Vietnam War. Mr. Hammond covers most of the important media events and reports important details of the statements and actions of those in the government and the military as well as those in the press. He also provides keen insight into the implications of those interactions and the effects they hand on later events.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I wish I could give it six stars. It is a book that anyone who wants to understand anything at all about the Vietnam War simply has to read. The articles in the two volumes of the Library of America series provide valuable background for this book and I think they should be read first. But even without them any reader would get a great deal from this book.
There are nearly fifty pages of notes, and index, and a generous number of pictures of the main events and participants. Just a wonderful achievement. Thanks to Mr. Hammond!

7 people found this helpful

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