Re: The media

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky wrote:

> I do not clearly understand all the reasons behind the
> fact, but the VN coverage by the media was not on the
> general line. The Korean war had been, and most of the
> support given by the USA to reactionary Latin Americans had
> been, was, and continued to be. The VN trauma, however,
> somehow made the media pierce through the lies and show the
> truth.

I don't think one should exaggerate the honesty of the media during
the Vietnam war. Their *approach* to a *partial* honesty should
be ascribed mostly to the determination of the Vietnamese people's
resistance. It was almost  by accident that the My Lai story emerged,
and at that never in really full detail. And no newspaper or TV
account ever challenged the false accounts of "Viet Cong" atrocities
in Hue.

The resistance of the Vietnamese engendered real disagreements
within the U.S. ruling class, disagreements reflected in the
conflict of "hawks" and "doves." The "doves" were not really
against the war, they were merely bothered by its messiness, and
by the threat of real radicalization in this country.

Carrol