History of Censorship in Vietnam.

The has been called the first uncensored war in American history. From the time that US forces were dispatched to the Southeast Asian country in the early 1960s to the in 1975, combat correspondents were given free reign to follow troops, enter hostile areas, and report from the battlefield. While correspondents working for US media could broadcast and write about the political and military situation, and even question the legitimacy of the war, Vietnamese media on the two opposing sides, the north and the south, faced severe restrictions. The republican Saigon government and the communist government in Hanoi controlled the press to discourage dissent and criticism, and to sway public opinion to their respective sides. It is an irony that US correspondents had more freedom in a foreign land than the nationals covering a bitter war that tore apart their homeland. Censorship of the Vietnamese media can be traced to the 1880s when the French introduced newspapers and magazines to Vietnam.