The power of television!

Image above: Episodes from the series Vietnam: A Television History on YouTube.

The power of Television

It is often said that the Vietnam War was the first television war - it was televised into our lounge rooms and for the first time the community, young and old could see what war was really about. As a result, there was considerable resistance from sections of the community as the war dragged on and the images of suffering and death continued to be seen on television screens in Australia. Interestingly no war since Vietnam has had the same coverage in so much detail - compared to the censorship in other wars, including World War 1, the coverage was extensive and very real. It is worth reading the writings and viewing the photojournalism of famous Vietnam war photographers such as the Australian Neil Davis  to get an idea about how close the coverage was to the real action.

As a result of the images captured and stories told about the war the home front was informed about the nature of war more than ever before.  I wonder if WW1 and WW2 would have played out differently if we had television when they occurred?
I really recommend you view the YouTube episodes of the excellent TV Series from 1980's titled Vietnam: A Television History. Although very much focused on the US, the series provides great information and images to really make us think about their impact at the time.

As you will see above, on the right hand side of the YouTube page for the video there are plenty of great documentaries on Vietnam for you to look at and consider - some quite controversial as we continue to the write the history of the Vietnam War.