Existing comment:
[World War II continued]
The press suspected this policy change was a result of the government's efforts to prepare the public for increased casualties in both the Pacific and Europe. As a Washington Post editorial in September 1943 put it, they could not:
"wholly avoid the suspicion that the government is now letting us see something of the grimmer side of war because it considers us overoptimistic."
The US government was concerned about reaction to this photo. It turned out the US public wanted realism in their war news. An OWI poll after the photo was published showed favorable results.
OWI Poll after Buna Beach Photo:
Realism in war coverage? Yes: 45%
Yes with qualifications: 8%
No: 42%
No Opinion: 5%
According to the historian James Kimble, US Treasury staffers also notes the effectiveness of these images: "the only way to sell more bonds -- indeed to speed the entire war effort -- [is] to get the facts of the war to the American people honestly and brutally ... [and] without gloves on."
After the Buna Beach photo, the US government took a course of action such as what the Washington Post September 1943 editorial called for:
An overdose of such photographs would be unhealthy. But in proper proportion they can help us to understand something of what has been sacrificed for the victories we have won... If we are to behave as adults in meeting our civilian responsibilities, we must be treated as adults. This means simply that we must be given the truth without regard to fears about how me may react to it.
Vietnam: The Uncensored War:
Tehre was confusion about press censorship ruiles during the Korean War. General MacArthur removed press censorship but later instituted it after Allied defeats.
In Vietnam, the US instituted a policy of no censorship.
To obtain Vietnam War accreditation, journalists has to agree to volunteer guidelines. Violation of the guidelines would result in losing accreditation. To maintain accreditation while telling the story, journalists in the field and editors in the US in [sic] had to push the limits without exceeding them -- a form of self-censorship. The approach was seen as successful at the time.
In his memoir General William Westmoreland, commander of US forces until 1968 said the policy worked.
"The MACV [Military Assistance Command Vietnam] information officer had to impose that penalty only a few times in the four years I was in Vietnam."
Vietnam -- c 1966: Marines recovering dead comrade while under fire near the DMZ, photographer Catherine LeRoy in rear. Larry Burrows, Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
Did the Uncensored Press Cause Public Support for the War to Collapse?
After the war, a "conventional wisdom" that the uncensored media was instrumental in turning the US public against the Vietnam War came to be accepted by many Americans of all political persuasions. The bloody images and grim reports on the high number of Marines and soldiers killed and wounded during the 1968 Tet battles were thought to have turned Americans against the war.
Based upon polling result analyses and news transcripts, historians such as Daniel C. Hallin ("The Uncensored War," 1986) argue this did not happen. On the contrary they attest that a plurality of the US public continued to support US Vietnam war policy. This support allowed both the Johnson and Nixon Administrations to keep fighting in Vietnam until the 1973 peace agreement was ratified.
Could the reality be that photos by Larry Burrows and others help American decide if the cost of war is worth it? As the Washington Post editorial said:
If we are to behave as adults in meeting our civilian responsibilities, we must be treated as adults. This means simply that we must be given the truth without regard to fears about how we may react to it.
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