Vietnam 40 years on: Ex-reporter on media’s role in war

Al Jazeera talks to Michael Nicholson, an ex-ITN war reporter who was at the US embassy in Saigon when it fell in 1975.

The death of civilians in a coup against the south Vietnamese President No Dinh Diem at the end of 1960 started to change how the country was viewed by media in the US. 

Initial coverage generally supported US involvement in the war, but that changed after the Tet Offensive, which saw the north Vietnamese army capture a number of towns in the south.

Later, horrific images of the US-led massacre at My Lai dominated TV coverage leading to intensified anti-war protests.

Michael Nicholson, a former war correspondent for the UK’s ITN news channel, was at the US embassy in Saigon when it fell in 1975.

Nicholson talks to Al Jazeera about the changing role of the media in the Vietnam war.

Source: Al Jazeera