vietnam war

The Vietnam War (1955-1975) is probably the most problematic of all American wars. First, it is morally ambiguous. It was both a war against communism and a war to suppress nationalist self-determination. Second, it can be (and was) very confusing. American objectives were not always well defined. As a result, US policy often meandered: the US would "Americanize" the war only to "Vietnamize" it five years later. Third, things in the Vietnam War were often …

…a loss for the US. Because of this media portrayal, the Tet Offensive ended up being a decisive victory for the Vietnamese communists. In 1971, several prominent newspapers published the pentagon papers, top-secret documents that proved the government had lied about Vietnam operations. As a result of the Vietnam War, the relationship between the media and the government changed profoundly, and the government lost a considerable amount of public trust that it may never entirely recover.