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Walter Cronkite created Fox News. Cronkite's fundamental role as a "cultural artist" in creating Fox. one of the most notable moments of Cronkite's liberalism being unmasked in a highly visible fashion was his now famous series on Vietnam. But by this time conservative Americans were already well awake to the realization that this powerful new institution of television was being used in ways both subtle and not, to convey the message that there was no more enlightened or superior world view than modern American liberalism. Broadcast by broadcast it was increasingly apparent that those who disagreed or who challenged the...

Journalism: After the eulogies, the fact remains that "the most trusted man in America" betrayed that trust. He helped snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam and tried hard to do the same in Iraq.President Obama on Friday praised Walter Cronkite as a journalistic icon, calling the CBS anchor the "voice of certainty in an uncertain world." More to the point, he was the father of advocacy journalism, the patron saint of media bias. He went from reporting news to recreating it in his own image. Far from the image of the patriotic war correspondent, Cronkite was a...

"We had a false sense of security," said Larry Rosser, a Vietnam veteran who now resides in Quartz Hill. Rosser served as a signalman in the 4th Infantry Division and was stationed in Vietnam's central highlands, outside the town of Pleiku, when the attack came. "Between 1 and 3 in the morning, they started rocket and mortar attacks on our base camp," Rosser said. "It was the first time it had been attacked." Rosser said no one was prepared for the attack. In fact, just a few weeks before Tet, commanders at his camp, Camp Enari, had started locking up...

Sometime within the next six months or so, al-Qaida or Saddamist terrorists will attempt a Tet offensive. No, Middle Eastern mass murderers don't celebrate the Vietnamese festival of Tet, but trust that America's enemies everywhere do celebrate and systematically seek to emulate the strategic political effects North Vietnam's 1968 attack obtained. This spring marks the 40th anniversary of Hanoi's offensive (yes, 40 years, two generations). It will also mark the umpteenth time American enemies have attempted to win in the psychological and political clash of an American election what they cannot win on the battlefield. In the course of Tet...

The Guardian (UK) reported in its May 22, 2007 edition that Iran is working to establish ties with al-Qaeda elements and Sunni insurgents in order to launch a major summer offensive against coalition forces in Iraq. The intent of such an operation, if the factional elements could pull it off, would be to undermine the President's security plan for Baghdad and al-Anbar Province, the so-called "surge," just as General David Petraeus was scheduled to return to Washington to brief the Congress on military and political progress in Iraq. Let's suppose for a moment that the Iranians, Sunnis and al-Qaeda terrorists...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Sen. John McCain said Monday he fears an offensive by Iraqi insurgents similar to the Tet Offensive by the Viet Cong that sent U.S. casualties soaring in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago. The Arizona Republican and likely presidential candidate also said in an Associated Press interview that lapses remain in U.S. intelligence as the nation assesses a potential nuclear threat from Iran. In defending President Bush's proposed troop surge in Iraq, McCain said it's not the American presence in Iraq that troubles Americans, it's the number of casualties and the possibility that they could escalate. "By...

RICHMOND, Va. - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Monday he fears an offensive by Iraqi insurgents similar to the Tet offensive by the Viet Cong that sent U.S. casualties soaring in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago. McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war, said in an interview with The Associated Press that it's not the U.S. presence in Iraq that upsets voters but rather the number of casualties and the possibility those numbers could rise. The U.S. death toll is more than 3,100 in the nearly four-year-old...

Iraq War: President Bush's acknowledgment that some "could be right" in comparing Iraq to Vietnam cheered the anti-war left. But he didn't mean it the way they think, and he won't give them the results they want. It's a mantra of the anti-war left that Iraq is like Vietnam in the quagmire sense, a waste of vast amounts of treasure and blood in a futile attempt to impose our will on a population rising up to resist us. It's also part of the mantra that 1968's Tet offensive was an American and South Vietnamese defeat. In a postwar interview, Bui...

George W Bush last night conceded for the first time that there were parallels between the current fighting in Iraq and the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War. Mr Bush has previously avoided the sensitive issue Mr Bush was asked in a television interview whether he agreed with a newspaper columnist that the current bloodshed in Iraq may be the equivalent to the 1968 Tet Offensive, generally considered a key turning point in the American war in Vietnam. “He could be right,” Mr Bush said. “There’s certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we’re heading into an election.”...

A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. Less has been written about the danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy that confronted individual units as they responded to VC attacks on the morning of January 31. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog...

All my life, said Voltaire, "I have never made but one prayer. ... 'Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."George Bush must have been praying the same way lately.In his "Plan for Victory" address to the Naval Academy, the president declared: "Against this adversary, there is only one effective response: We will never back down. We will never give in. And we will never accept anything less than complete victory."This is what one expects of a commander in chief in wartime, speaking to the patriotic young midshipmen, who roared approval.To which Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

If you wanted to see the perfect example of the ethical and moral collapse of the Mainstream Media, you could not do better than a long article in the New Yorker of May 23, 2005. The article is entitled, "The Spy Who Loved Us." Written by a teacher at the University of Albany, named Thomas Bass, it's about a man named Pham Xuan An. Now very old, An was -- among many other things -- a correspondent in Saigon during the Vietnam War for Time magazine. He was apparently considered a particularly brilliant and well-informed correspondent and very well liked...

THE Vietnam War is universally regarded as a disaster for what it did to the American and Vietnamese people. However, 30 years after the war's end, the reasons for its outcome remain a matter of dispute. The most popular explanation among historians and journalists is that the defeat was a result of American policy makers' cold-war-driven misunderstanding of North Vietnam's leaders as dangerous Communists. In truth, they argue, we were fighting a nationalist movement with great popular support. In this view, "our side," South Vietnam, was a creation of foreigners and led by a corrupt urban elite with no popular...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Friday, December 24, 2004 "Insurgents want their stories told" -- Associated Press Little Green Footballs links to a Poynter Online press release here reproduced verbatim. From JACK STOKES, director of media relations, Associated Press: [This is a solicited letter regarding Salon's "The Associated Press 'insurgency.'"] Several brave Iraqi photographers work for The Associated Press in places that only Iraqis can cover. Many are covering the communities they live in where family and tribal relations give them access that would not be available to Western photographers, or even Iraqi photographers who are...

U.S. Documentary http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/U/htmlU/uncountedene/uncountedene.htm The CBS Reports documentary The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception, which aired on 23 January 1982, engendered one of the most bitter controversies in television history. The 90-minute program spawned a three-year ordeal for CBS, including disclosures by TV Guide that the report violated CBS News Standards; an internal investigation by Burton (Bud) Benjamin; and an unprecedented $120 million libel suit by retired U.S. Army General William C. Westmoreland. Westmoreland sued producer George Crile III, correspondent Mike Wallace, and others for alleging that Westmoreland participated in a conspiracy to defraud the American public about progress in the...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. Welcome to "Warrior Wednesday" Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different...

<p>Suddenly the historical debate over Vietnam is sprouting all through the current debate over Iraq. Howard Dean, leading the Democratic pack, told Dan Rather: "We sent troops to Vietnam, without understanding why we were there. And the American people weren't told the truth and it was a disaster. And Iraq is gonna become a disaster under this presidency."</p>