policy - The Black Vault

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time had come "to phase out" the war as the issue that had dominated news
coverage in thc 1960's. 58/
During the Nixon administration, it appeared that only intrepid
reporters stood on guard against tyranny. Covering the news media's role,
James Reston wrote: "The main charge against the press in general, though
not against the few newspapers that exposed the deceptions of Vietnam and
Watergate, is not that the press was too aggressive, but that it was too
timid or lenient or lazy." 59/ The press rose slowly to the Pentagon
Papers story, to the My Lai story, and, indeed, to the Watergate story. It
was subject Co manipulation by administration figures liKe Henry Kissinger
who gave only "background" news conferences - not for attribution - and to
manipulation by officials who believed in leaking information on a selective
basis. In general, the media seemed to have become highly sensitive
to the criticism fired against it by the Nixon-Agnew press attacks.
Nixon, for all his long feud with the media, did not suffer as
Johnson had on the Vietnam issue. Unlike Johnson, Nixon's adminstration
did not claim "progress" toward an ill-defined military goal. US policy on
Vietnam was clearly understood; "talk and withdraw." In 1972, when Hanoi
launched its Easter offensive, no Washington Tet-style crisis occurred
because there was no surprise. Secretary of Defense Laird and others had
warned of an impending attack in contrast to Johnson who kept it to himself.
Further, the attacks did not follow an administration "progress"
campaign and the administration reacted promptly with renewed bombing and
the mining of the harbor at Haiphong. There was less intra-administration
confusion on Vietnam to seep over to Congress and to the media. 60/
D. IMPACT OF MEDIA COVERAGE ON THE WAR
ii-. In
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There is a belief that is strongly held by some of the American public
that the style and tone of media coverage of the war contributed significantly
to the defeat of US policy in Vietnam. Echoing this opinion, an
American military correspondent wrote:
this war - at least as seen by most experienced
soldiers - US television has wittingly, or unwittingly,
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