Reporting Of American Bombing Campaign In Vietnam

[Noggin-the-Nog]

Would I be right in remembering nightly news accounts of the tonnage of bombs dropped on Vietnam? Having been born in the late 50s I have only limited memories of the war as it was happening.

[DJHawkes]

It was operation rolling thunder i think you mean. The war was on the news every night in the 60s.

[Peter Pedant]

.

On Brit tv ? No - it hardly ever led

US tv ? quite possibly. - there was also a pre occupation with the body count now reckoned to be 10 ; 1 civilian to viet-cong see wiki Macnamara Fallacy ( relance on body count as a indicator of winning the war )

[FredPuli43]

Not a nightly lead in British news, but reports did almost always give the bomb tonnage. I bet the Americans used that to give the impression that they were winning, smashing those pesky Vietnamese peasants !

[heathfield]

I was working for a time in Sabah, Borneo, and used to listen to the US forces radio from Vietnam. They'd give the bomb tonnage and body count several times daily. One day, following one of these announcements, I actually heard the newsreader deliberately asking on air "Why should I have to read out all this damned cr*p? It's meaningless and doesn't count for anything!" This caused a huge fuss, and of course, he lost his job immediately. A while later, I learned that another newsreader had done the same thing, though I missed it on that second occasion.

[Peter Pedant]

For pearl-of-the-orient lovers - that woold be Sai-Gon or Ho Chi Minh City

The Sexy-Rexy or Rex Hotel is near the Cathedral - and that was the very place - top floor I think the news conferences were given.

The hacks in view of the uselessness of the 'news' called them:
The five o'clock Follies

The city museum is just around the corner ans is also worth a visit

[DJHawkes]

it was on the news every night when i was at school, it might not have been the lead story, in fact i think it was often the final story, but i know those black and white images were always on our screen. (we only got a colour tele in 1974)

[Teddio]

Another statistic about the Vietnam war was that one VC soldier was killed for every 100 000 rounds fired by the Americans.