policy - The Black Vault

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policy, usually in demonstrations, but their chances of
changing policy are slim. Their impotence leads either
to numbed apathy or, more dangerously, to outright
hostility.
This is what happer a over the last twenty-four
months in this country as opposition to the war in Viet
Nam swelled to an overpowering crescendo. It did not
happen, in my opinion, primarily because some people
thought the war immoral, and some thought it illegal
and some tiiought it simply unwinonable at an acceptable
cost. I think i'; happened because a majority of people
believed the war undemocratic - waged in violation of
the traaition of consent which is fundamental to the
effective conduct of foreign policy in a free
society. 66/
E. THE QUESTION OF CENSORSHIP
As US involvement in Vietnam progressed, tha issue of news censorship
was brought to the fore. A team of military news experts was sent to
Vietnam to study the question. It was decided that under the circumstances
news censorship could not be eiforced. Instead in 1965, the Army issued a
"guidance document" on press censorship which was adhered to with few
exceptions. It was recognized that the imposition of censorship in Vietnam
would. have contributed significantly to the credibility gap discussed
above.
There were other important re-?,ns why censorship was rejected under
the conditions of the Vietnam conflict. The war was not an all-out war,
but w9s initidlly labeled an insurgency and later a conventional limited
war. US support, while great, never reached the proportions of a total
commitment of national resources. Heice, the imposition of censorship
would have been incongruous with President Johnson's desire to minimize the
attention focused upon the war. Further, since the Republic of Vietnam was
M: a sovereign nation, the option of censorship should have been theirs.
Approximately one-half of the correspondents in Vietnam were foreign,
N and they would not have been bounid by US censorship regulations. If
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foreign news representatives "scooped" US news personnel, especially on a 4
regular basis, it is likely that the credibility of the military, the
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