Fooling the people
- The Cold War - Vietnam
- The Late Late Show - Omagh Special
The media has by now perfected the notion of consensus opinions -
that is, the notion that they represent a neutral ground that
attempts portray the ``truth''. In fact this consensus is the view
of the established authority.
Carefully coded language has been used to portray those outside
the established order as ``terrorists'', ``extremists'' or
``marxists'', while those favoured by the establishment are called
``moderates', ``liberals'' or ``those struggling to defend the
innocent''.
The intro for Tuesday's Cold War documentary immediately
attempted to place the viewer ``on side'' by labelling the US
invasion of Vietnam as ``their struggle to fight against
communism''.
What followed was a series of lies and half truths given by
various generals and aides, uncontested in all cases, leading to
a totally inaccurate portrayal.
In 1945 the communist forces of Ho Chi Minh, which were supported
by the vast majority of the Vietnamese population, threw off the
shackles of colonialism and ousted their French masters.
They turned to the USA for ``moral support'', which alas was
unavailable, as US interests did not lie in a truly independent
Asian nation, which might inspire other Asian nations to throw
off the yolk of imperialism, and thereby threaten American
``stategic interests'' in Asia.
Vietnam was forcibly divided by the Allies in 1954 into north and
south to lessen the influence of its own people, and opening the
way for the CIA to install a corrupt and repressive regime in
South Vietnam, which would protect their interests.
This documentary peddled the notion that North Vietnam
discriminated against and persecuted many of its people, forcing
them to flee to the south, mirroring the American propaganda at
the time, which fed the lie that thousands of Catholics were
being butchered, leading to a mass exodus of refugees and
allowing the US government to feed to its populace that its only
reason for stationing 16,000 troops in South Vietnam was to
protect ``the Catholics againsts the Godless communists''.
By ignoring the origins of this terrible war, the documentary
denied the viewer the knowledge necessary to oppose similar
American actions that continue to this day in Latin America and
the Middle East.
This is a grave disservice and blatant Western propaganda. The
programme also presented the case that ``President Johnson was
exasperated'' by the coups in the south and had to ``sort it out''.
It blatantly ignored the fact that the CIA organised each coup
and furthermore initiated attacks on the north in an effort to
provoke war with the north and ``gain complete US control''.
The all-important ``master illusion'' which led to war involved a
supposed attack on a US warship by communists, which was
presented as fact on our screens. In fact the captain of the ship
reported ``no exchange of fire'' - this was conveniently ignored by
President Johnson, who now had a pretext for invading Vietnam.
In the following ten years the USA sent the greatest ever land
army to Vietnam, dropped the greatest tonnage of bombs in the
history of warfare, pursued a military strategy deliberately
designed to force millions of people to abandon their homes and
used chemicals which profoundly changed the enviromental and
genetic order, leaving a once beautiful land petrified.
At least 1,300,000 people were killed and many more maimed and
otherwise ruined - just 58,022 of these were Americans -
President Reagan called this (fight against communism) ``a noble
cause''.
This so called authoritative documentary, by its lies and half
truths, gives credence to the ridiculous notion of a civil war
which the US had to engage in to prevent the spread of Godless
communism. It focused only on the deaths of Americans,
interviewing no civilians and portraying the victims as passive
pawns caught in a noble struggle.
This shameful programming contributes to the continuation of such
wars and their acceptance by Western society and is an insult to
the memory of the dead. Shame on RTE.
The Late Late Show revisited our own recent tragedy of Omagh. Bar
the absurd posturing of Bob Geldof, it was a well presented and
highly emotional programme.
As a cynical viewer of Gay Byrne, one could not but be upset by
the recounting of tales of horror by the Omagh survivors, who
comprised the audience. They spoke of how they were blinded, lost
body parts, recieved 65% burns, removed car parts from their
chests; and in a highly charged climax watched Michael Grimes and
many of the audience break down as he recounted how he lost three
generation of his family. This was presented in a non-judgemental
and objective manner and Gay Byrne deserves credit for his
presentation.
Shamefully however Sir Bob, who has never shown any genuine
concern for his own people, cast us back to the days of
``censorship and condemnation'' expressing his ``hatred'' for
republicans, who have suffered more than anyone, but yet
``deserved to burn in hell''. Remember Cardinal Cullen. Rich coming
from the man who symbolises the indifference of large swathes of
the southern reactionaries who have contributed nothing to recent
progress.
His rendition of the ``song of indifference'' was an apt summary of
his ilk and an unfortunate conclusion to an otherwise excellent
programme and one of the most powerful pieces of television seen
in this country.
By Sean O Donaile
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