The Vietnam War Through the Eyes of a Correspondent
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The Television War: The Vietnam War Through the Eyes of a Correspondent Interviewer: Colin Krinsky Interviewee: Bob Schieffer Instructor: Alex Haight February 11, 2019 Table of Contents Interviewer Release Form…………………………………………………………………………2 Interviewee Release Form…………………………………………………………………………3 Statement of Purpose……………………………………………………………………………...4 Biography………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Contextualization: A History of Journalism in the Vietnam War…………………………………7 Interview Transcription…………………………………………………………………………18 Interview Analysis……………………………………………………………………………… 49 Works Consulted…………………………………………………………………………………53 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………55 Krinsky 4 Statement of Purpose The purpose of this project is to obtain a historical comprehension of the life of a journalist as well as the effect of journalism during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1972. Interviewing Mr. Schieffer provides both a first-hand perspective of the day to day life of a Vietnam correspondent and a qualified assessment of the impact the media had on the war. This interview will allow historians to compare a credible recount of journalism in Vietnam to other historical sources. Mr. Schieffer’s experience in Vietnam and expert analysis adds to the debate of the media’s significance in the Vietnam War. Krinsky 5 Biography Bob Schieffer was born in 1931in Austin, Texas. Mr. Schieffer grew up in Fort Worth in a middle-class family with two younger siblings. Mr. Schieffer attended Texas Christian University was in the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. After college, Mr. Schieffer served three years in the Air Force before returning to work at a small radio station. Mr. Schieffer latter joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram where he covered major events such as the Kennedy assignation and the Vietnam War. In December of 1965, Mr. Schieffer left for a four- month-long trip to cover the Vietnam War. Mr. Schieffer received letters from families in Texas asking him to interview their relatives in Vietnam. Mr. Schieffer interviewed 220 Texans and published his interviews in the Star-Telegram. After returning to Fort Worth, Mr. Schieffer got a job with a local television station and was later hired by CBS. At CBS, He spent 20 years anchoring the evening news before serving as the Chief Washington Correspondent and finally becoming moderating CBS’s public affairs show Face the Nation. Mr. Schieffer has won almost every broadcasting award including eight Emmys, the Overseas Press Club Award, the Paul White Award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence. Krinsky 6 The Library of Congress deemed him a living legend in 2008 and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2005, Texas Christian University renamed their journalism school the Bob Schieffer College of Communication. Mr. Schieffer has written four books including This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV and Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast. Although he retired in 2015, Mr. Schieffer is still a contributor on CBS, covering politics in Washington. Krinsky 7 A History of Journalism in the Vietnam War Historian Howard Zinn summarizes the Vietnam War, stating “... the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny, peasant country- and failed.”1 The war spanned from 1964 to 1972. The media played a major role in the war. Often referred to as the “Television War,” the Vietnam War significantly changed how the media covers war. Some believe the media had a massive effect on public opinion and ultimately the United States’ loss, while others believe the media merely reflected the current mood of the country. In order to fully understand the controversy and impact of journalism in the Vietnam War, one must understand the circumstances in which the United States entered the war, the major events in the war itself, and the anti-war movement that followed. The Vietnam War was part of a larger ideological conflict between United States and the Soviet Union battling for influence, power, and economic control. Known as the Cold War, it ranged from 1947-1991. The United States fought for capitalism while the Soviet Union advanced communism. Although the Cold War never became violent between the Soviets and the United States, the war produced extreme militarism in both counties. The war fueled an intense rivalry that led to the space race as well as major developments in the two countries’ nuclear arsenals. One of the United States’ main goals was to prevent the spread of communism. As communism expanded to Southeast Asia, the United States took a more active role in its containment. In his book Vietnam: A History, Stanley Karnow explains, “Official American spokesmen had already conceived the ‘domino theory,’ warning that if Indochina fell to 1 Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (New York, NY: New York Press, 2003), 247. Krinsky 8 communism, so would the other countries.”2 In 1954 communist leader Ho Chi Minh declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s independence from France and founded the Viet Minh, a national independence coalition. In the Geneva agreement of 1954, the French consented to withdraw troops from the northern part of Vietnam. Zinn wrote, “The United States moved quickly to prevent unification and to establish South Vietnam as an American sphere.”3 The United States installed their government in Saigon, led by Ngo Dinh Diem. The U.S. struggled to control Vietnamese politics eventually resulting in violence. Opposition to Diem grew; Diem was extremely different from most of the population religiously, socioeconomically, and ideologically. To keep power he refused to hold free elections. Historian Paul Johnson recounted, “As a result, the Communists created a new guerrilla movement for the South, the Vietcong, which emerged in 1957 and started hostilities.”4 Also known as The National Liberation Front, the Viet Cong played a large part in organizing the previously small distant factions opposing Diem. As Diem continued to lose control, President Kennedy sent troops to Vietnam. Zinn claimed, “Diem was becoming an embarrassment, an obstacle to effective control over Vietnam.”5 Consequently, Diem was assassinated in November of 1963 by a CIA backed coup. Within the next month, Kennedy was assassinated. After Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency and took a more aggressive approach to control the region. In early August 1964, Johnson made an announcement that the North Vietnamese had attacked a U.S. Navy ship in international waters. The next day he reported a second attack. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution almost 2 Stanley Karnow, Vietnam a History (The Viking Press, 1983; New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1984), 184. 3 Zinn, A People's, 350. 4 Paul Johnson, A History of the American People (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998; New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997), 879. 5 Zinn, A People's, 351. Krinsky 9 immediately. It stated, “... the United States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.”6 The President was then able to send troops to Vietnam without officially declaring war. President Johnson relied heavily on bombing throughout the war. One of his first military actions was Operation Rolling Thunder in March of 1965, a bombing campaign with the goal of damaging the North Vietnamese army and infrastructure. The operation was originally supposed to last two months, but no substantial damage to North Vietnamese army was reported. According to Karnow, Johnson found his solution to the lack of results, “The answer was typically American: more and bigger. Soon the operation became ‘sustained pressure,’ and B- 52’s armed with napalm and cluster bombs joined the action.”7 Johnson continued to use more of the U.S.’s resources including ordering 50,000 more ground troops, increasing the draft, and ordering search and destroy missions. He was strongly encouraged to order these missions by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Karnow recounts what the missions entailed: [McNamara] stressed that Johnson ought to call up the reserves- the force of former servicemen a politically explosive step tantamount to an announcement of full-scale war. He also proposed a massive offensive against North Vietnam- mining its harbors, destroying its airfields, obliterating its rail and road bridges and wiping out every installation of military value, from ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities to power plants and barracks.8 Following McNamara’s plan, U.S.’s soldiers advanced their position, destroyed enemy resources then quickly retreated. The destruction of the North Vietnamese infrastructure not only affected 6 Gulf of Tonkin, A. Res. 88-408, 1964 Leg. (D.C., as passed, Aug. 10, 1964). Accessed November 26, 2018. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-78/pdf/STATUTE-78-Pg384.pdf. 7 Karnow, Vietnam a History, 430. 8 Ibid Krinsky 10 the military but also the citizens. Many citizens’ food supplies and homes were destroyed and burned. On March 16, 1968, during what is now known as the My Lai massacre, a platoon led by Second Lieutenant William Calley killed over 500 Vietnamese civilians during a search and destroy mission. Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment. Zinn wrote, “Thousands of Americans came to his defense. Part of it was in patriotic justification of his action as necessary against the ‘Communists.’ Part of it seems to have been a feeling that he was unjustly singled out in a war with many similar atrocities.”9 Americans began to feel conflicted between their loyalty to United States mission and sympathy for the people of Vietnam. As U.S. casualties grew so did the anti-war movement.