t away from their efforts. He also credited the political leadership for not rallying the support needed, by failing to convince the public that there was a cause to be won (Neuman 173). According to Mightier than the Sword, by Rodger Streitmatter, many media and political experts have argued that by bringing grisly images into the American Living Room, television news played a key role in turning the American public against the Vietnam war, and, ultimately, in hastening the end of that prolonged conflict (Streitmatter 187). It is no coincidence that so many political, and even members of the media attribute the loss of the war to the loss of public favor. Television played the part of the antagonist during the war, rather than the serving the good of the people. Although this can be argued either way, most facts point toward the notion that uncensored media cost the war for the country. This strengthens the argument that censorship of wars of the past, however cruel or deceitful, did serve as a valuable way of keeping public favor. Numerous scholars and members of society have made this point. According to Streitmatter, Edward Shills, author of the book The Vietnam Legacy, writes, “Television gave the American people vivid images of certain aspects of the war in Vietnam, which they could never have gotten from reading newspapers and periodicals. It made them see the war as meaningless destruction of lives and landscapes” (Streitmatter 188). The book describes in detail how in fact the media shaped the beliefs about the war for the public. Between pages 191 and 193, Streitmatter gives prime examples of this. He writes about how the goriest images were what the press sought out during the war, not to reveal the truth about the war, but to get higher ratings for the networks. He discusses how one network executive told his reporters to “concentrate on providing graphic images of American soldiers engaged in ...
