Posted on 01/31/2018 2:46:24 PM PST by Nextrush
The official anniversary of the Tet Offensive is January 30th, the day it began, but it was on this day that network television news (the cutting edge most important news source 50 years ago today) was able to bring viewers dramatic and startling footage of the Vietcong suicide attack on the US Embassy in Saigon.
The attack came at around 3am Saigon time but there was no live video capability in 1968 from Vietnam. The films of the attack were put on airplanes and sent to locations like Hong Kong or Tokyo where they could be sent via satellite earth stations back to the United States.
At 1130pm both CBS and NBC aired "Special Reports" on the Communist offensive in Saigon and around Vietnam, bringing viewers the drama orchestrated by the enemy to gain a propaganda victory.
The Tet Offensive would be a propaganda victory beyond their wildest imaginations.
Media bias and the Tet Offensive was detailed out in Peter Braestrup's "Big Story" book published in the 1970's.
Public anger and angst over biased news reporting boiled over into the ranks of television news itself in 1970 when ABC anchor and commentator Howard K. Smith, a man with socialist, anti-religious and pro-gun control views, told "TV Guide" there was indeed a liberal bias in television news that showed itself in coverage of the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile, the NBC co-anchor Chet Huntley left his job in 1970 lamenting the political divisions caused in part by the Vietnam War and also decrying the increase in government bureaucracy. Wow, he would be shocked if he lived to see this day.
Many believed he was headed back to his native Montana to pursue a career in politics as a Republican candidate for US Senate. CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite even chuckled at his conservative libertarian ideas that caused Huntley to cross a picket line when TV network people went on strike in 1967 while Uncle Walter walked with a picket sign.
Links to videos of "Special Reports" below.
Loooong time ago,one week before my enlistment...(Feb8-68)
1968 itself is an incredible year to look back on. (Though I wasn’t even born.) But after yesterday’s State of the Union, I must say - yes we struggle and stumble along...yes Vietnam was divisive...but I’m mighty proud of those who served and of this country and where we’re at in general.
I was seven years old and the film of the embassy attack got my attention as well as the film when the Vietcong terrorist was marched to the South Vietnamese police general who summarily executed him on the street.
My brother was there...he was military police.
I remember the pics of our guys outside the embassy. .
bttt
The young men were drafted and sent to Vietnam to police the enemy, not defeat the enemy.
Too many died in it all.
“In war there is no substitute for victory” is what General MacArthur told Congress after Truman fired him for tying to fight the Korean War to win.
A mere 50 years ago. Wait, WHAT!
Thanks for this, interesting to remember and look at now that I’ve got some years behind me. Appreciate the nod to Chet Huntley, also.
Goodnight, Chet.
“A mere 50 years ago. Wait, WHAT!”
—
And to think a ‘mere’ 50 years before that it was 1918, with WWI ending. Amazing changes from start to end of both half-centuries.
The enemy was defeated in almost all encounters. If the US had the will to wage an offensive war, it could have been over pretty quickly. But without that will, we sent good men to go die in a mess.
I don’t remember hearing about the Embassy attack till
the next week. The week of Tet we were under attack
every night that week, motars and rockets.
Up all night, work all day, it was a long week.
Chu Lai RVN.
Quite amazing indeed. In 1918 Progressive President Woodrow Wilson proposing a “policing” of the world as WW I ended and 50 years later the “policing” becoming a farce in Vietnam under Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.
“But, as you may recall, Tet was the end for the US in SEA. No, really Wally said so.”
—
I was in Jr. High, so I don’t have any memory of that - heard about it later. But at the time, my mind was more on misc. young ladies I fancied.
I know someone who’s brother died on that date
He might have been one of Tet’s very first casualties
I will email him tonight, he is at peace with this tragedy but I remember hearing about it a few days later when my parents read the obituary in the paper
RIP, American Hero
Tye communist masters in China are going to have their own problems here very soon
directed economy is over in Southeast Asia are all just got a weenie nothing communists like for example Vietnam
NDorks are a complete joke.
Again China is the big dog over in that part of the world and the fact that they have to Build giant cities that are empty just to try to show GDP show how pathetic c and full of lies the planned economy of these communist countries is
says the kiled Russia and it’s gonna kill them too
Top down don’t work
“President Woodrow Wilson”
—
He was POTUS when my parents were born. A whole nother world.
Viet Nam wasn't divisive.
The damned lying communists in Big Media (yeah, YOU Walter Cronkite) and the demonicRAT Party, and the various communist soviet sponsored revolutionary organizations were divisive. The demonicRATs were an enemy organization working within America to undermine and destroy America.
No, they haven't changed a bit. We're just more aware of it now.
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