The US left Vietnam 50 years ago today. The media hasn’t learned its lesson | Norman Solomon
The myth that news coverage turned Americans against the war persists. In fact, it was largely complicit in perpetuating the conflict
The last helicopter liftoff from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon on 30 April 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam war. Fifty years later, mythology about US media coverage of the war is locked into the faulty premise that news outlets were pivotal in causing Americans to turn against it. Some say that mainstream media undermined a noble war effort, while others say that coverage alerted the public to realities of an unjust war. Both assertions are wrong.