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United States Army in Vietnam Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1968-1973 by William M. Hammond ~IIUrAMY INSTIlI'C"I'1QN Center of Military History United States Army Washington, D.C., 1996 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hammond, William M. Public affairs : the military and the media, 1968-1973 / by William M. Hammond. p. ern. - (United States Army in Vietnam) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975-Press coverage. 2. Armed Forces and mass media- United States-History. I. Title. II. Series. DS559.46.H37 1996 070.4' 4995970434-dc20 94-35531 C1P First Printing-CMH Pub 91-2-1 ForS:llc by the U.S. Go\'COlrncnl Printing OffICe Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, WashinglOlI, DC 20402·9328 ISBN 0·16·048696·3 United States Army in Vietnam Jeffrey J. Clarke, General Editor Advisory Committee (As of October 1994) John W. Shy Maj. Gen. John P. Herrling University of Michigan U.s. Army Training and Doch'ine Command Col. John F. Connolly U.S. Army War College D. Clayton James Virginia Military Institute Carlo W. D'Este New Seabury, Mass. Michael J. Kurtz National Archives and Records Brig. Gen. Gerald E. Galloway, Jr. Administration U.s. Military Academy Carol A. Reardon Joseph T. Glatthaar Pennsylvania State University University of Houston Brig. Gen. Randall L. Rigby, Jr. Rose L. Greaves U.s. Army Command and General University of Kansas Staff College Ira D. Gruber William A. Walker Rice University Archivist of the Army U.S. Army Center of Military History Brig. Gen. John W. Mow1tcastle, Chief of Military History Chief Historian Jeffrey J. Clarke Chief, Histories Division Col. William T. Bowers Editor in Chief John W. Elsberg iii · . . to Those Who Served Foreword The U.S. Army in Vietnam series documents the Army's role in the Vietnam War. Most of its volumes deal with the Army's particular mili tary interests: the conduct of combat operations, logistics, engineering, communications and electronics, and advice and support for America's allies. Two, howevel; depart from that pattern to address a subject unique to recent war, the evolving relationship between the military and the news media. The first of those volumes, Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962-1968, appeared in 1988. An account of military-media rela tions during the early years of the wal; it covered the formulation of mili tary policies for dealing with the press in Vieh1am and how those policies influenced the conduct of the war prior to the Tet offensive of 1968. Picking up where that volume ended- just after Tet, as the search for a negotiated settlement to the conflict began- this account carries the story forward through the admin.istration of President Richard M. Nixon to the final withdrawal of American forces from South Vieh1am in 1973. It is a tale well worth telling, not only because it draws upon hitherto unavailable sources but because it documents even.ts and precedents that will continue to affect military relations with the news media during future operations. Indeed, many of the book's episodes and themes will have a familiar ring to those who have followed military relations with the media during operations in Grenada and Panama, the war in the Persian Gulf, and a host of subsequent peace operations. I recommend the study for its special insights not only to soldiers, newsmen, and policy makers but to the general public as well. Washington, D.C. JOHN W. MOUNTCASTLE 16 August 1995 Brigadier General, USA Chief of Military History vii The Author William M. Hammond is a graduate of the Catholic University of America, where he earned the M.A. and PhD. degrees. He serves as a his torian with the U.S. Army Center of Milital'Y History in Washington, D.C. In addition to this volume and its predecessor, Public Affairs: The Military n/1d the Media, 1962-1968, published in 1988, he is the coauthor of the forthcoming Black Soldier, White Arll1y: The 24th Infantry RegiJnent in Korea. Hammond has also written a narrative on the Normandy invasion for the u.s. Center's series The Army Campaigns of World War ll; the Center's history of the selection and interment of the Vietnam War's Unknown Soldiel; The U,1kl1own Servicemal1 of tile Vietl1am Era; and numerous shorter articles in professional journals. He has taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and at Trinity College in Washington, D.C. In addition to his duties at the Center, he is currently a Lecturer in University Honors at the University of Maryland, College Park. viii Preface This book continues the description of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam's efforts to manage relations with the news media during the Viehlam WaJ.'. Beguming shortly after the Tet offensive of 1968, where its predecessol; Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962-1968, left off, it describes the changes ultroduced into the program by General William C. Westmoreland's successor, General Creighton Abrams, and follows their development through to the end of the war. Since Washington agencies, especially the White House, throughout the war but particularly toward its end, exerted a major influence over the military's public affairs policies, I have contumed to take as broad an approach to the subject as time and available source materials have allowed. Because no Pentagon Papers exist to detail official thulking at the highest level durmg the Nixon administration, I have made extensive use of President Richard Nixon's hitherto unavaiJable national security files to provide context for the reader but also to flesh out procedures and events that would lack meaning and substance if seen only from the perspective of field agencies. In that way, I have sought to trace the many turns public affairs policies took on issues surrowlding such events as the My Lai mas sacre, the incursion into Cambodia, and LAM SoN 719 from the time when they began to take shape in Washington until they found their way thJ.'ough the military bureaucracy to wtits m the field. The result, I believe, has been much to the benefit of this study. The controversies that evolved over time between the military and the news media in Vietnam had dunensions far beyond either the press or public affaiJ.'s officers. Indeed, a careful consideration of the larger record will show that the harsh criticisms leveled by the press often duplicated the positions of responsible members of the Nixon administration itself. On more than one occasion, they even paled in comparison with the anger and recriminations circulating among members of the White House staff. m that sense, the hardening of opinion that set in on all sides as the war ground toward its conclusion, not only between the military and the news media but also between the highest officials of the central govern ment and military officers duty-bound to obey their will, was sympto matic of a malaise far larger than anything the press could have contrived on its own. It went to the heart of the war itself, to the unyielding contra dictions that had existed at its core from the very begirming. ix