"The US military still blames the media for stories and images that turned the American public against the war in Vietnam"
About this Quote
Blaming the media for “turning” Americans against Vietnam is the kind of institutional alibi that outlives the war itself. Jackson’s phrasing doesn’t just report a grievance; it exposes a reflex: when a conflict collapses in legitimacy, power prefers to indict the messenger rather than the mission. The verb “still” is the tell. This isn’t a historical footnote but a continuing posture, a way the military narrates defeat without admitting misjudgment, deception, or moral cost.
The line’s subtext is about control of perception. “Stories and images” gestures to the era’s defining shift: Vietnam was the first American war consumed nightly, in color, with body bags and burning villages interrupting dinner. The accusation implies that public support is a default setting, and that only distortion - rather than mounting casualties, unclear objectives, the draft, or official credibility gaps - could have produced dissent. That’s not analysis; it’s an emotional defense mechanism that preserves authority.
Context matters: after the Pentagon Papers and the slow-motion erosion of trust, “the media lost Vietnam” became a convenient myth. It flattens a complex antiwar movement into a single villain and converts journalism into sabotage. Jackson, as a public servant, is pointing to how bureaucracies manage accountability: by relocating failure onto an external actor with less institutional power. The quote also foreshadows a recurring American pattern - every subsequent war comes with a preemptive fight over narrative, and an anxiety that images, once seen, can’t be un-seen.
The line’s subtext is about control of perception. “Stories and images” gestures to the era’s defining shift: Vietnam was the first American war consumed nightly, in color, with body bags and burning villages interrupting dinner. The accusation implies that public support is a default setting, and that only distortion - rather than mounting casualties, unclear objectives, the draft, or official credibility gaps - could have produced dissent. That’s not analysis; it’s an emotional defense mechanism that preserves authority.
Context matters: after the Pentagon Papers and the slow-motion erosion of trust, “the media lost Vietnam” became a convenient myth. It flattens a complex antiwar movement into a single villain and converts journalism into sabotage. Jackson, as a public servant, is pointing to how bureaucracies manage accountability: by relocating failure onto an external actor with less institutional power. The quote also foreshadows a recurring American pattern - every subsequent war comes with a preemptive fight over narrative, and an anxiety that images, once seen, can’t be un-seen.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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