As Rosenberg (1974) notes, the defeat of General Custer was publicly position as an epic and heroic one. Epic defeat pattern implies that a hero is defeated in a sanguinary battle where his enemy also suffers considerably. The defeat occurs due to forces beyond the control of the hero, such as enemy’s exceeding number or superiority of their armament. The hero is determined to fight till the end, shows no signs of panic or fear, and eventually gloriously dies in the battlefield. Vietnam War produced a different kind of hero.Vietnam veterans are largely perceived as the victims of their country’s opportunistic foreign policy.
O’Brien (1998) in ‘The Things They Carried’ shows that the American experience in Vietnam was far from epic; it was an experience of disillusion, despair, death, and guilt. Since photography rose to prominence during the Vietnam War, images from that era shaped public perception of the war as a shameful and humiliating defeat. A man killing an unarmed and defenseless boy (appendix A) suggests that the enemy did not have an advantage in number or military technology.A person burning in the street of a busy city (appendix B) suggest that the war was not an honest and glorious confrontation in the battlefield but rather a series of covert and coward tricks by both sides. Finally, a heap of corps in American uniform (appendix C) suggest that the defeat in Vietnam was tragic, humiliating, and unnecessary.
Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the Vietnam War was not framed as an epic defeat by the media; it was rather perceived as disgraceful and disappointing experience.
