HOW TV DISILLUSIONED AMERICA:
VIETNAM WAR IN THE 1960S
An Idaho State University Student Project
THE RISE OF TELEVISION
"The biggest of the new forces in American life today is television. There has been nothing like it in the postwar decade, or in many decades before that-perhaps not since the invention of the printing press. Even radio, by contrast, was a placid experience."
US News and World Report, 1955.
Time Magazine, March 1955
Courtesy of tvhistory.tv
In 1949, there were fewer than 1 million households with television sets....
By 1955, two out of three U.S. families owned TV sets. That equalled 32 million homes...
"No previous mass medium, not even radio, expanded its audience so explosively as television."
Roland Marchand, Reshaping America: Society and Institutions, 1982
By 1960, 46 million households had television sets.
90% of all Americans watched approximately 5 hours of television a day.
Time Magazine, March 1955
"One of these days, George, you'll turn into a vegetable!" From Kaufman, A. (1965)
"This program is coming to you LIVE -- ." From Ivey, J. (ca. 1960)
"Here We Go Again." From Valtman, E. S. (1960)
"It'll be a relief to get back to plain old horror shows." From Block, H. (1964)
All cartoons acquired from Library of Congress
By the 1960s, television had become a commonplace appliance in the American household. It held not only the main source of "cheap" entertainment, but was a major distributor of information.
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Dramatic moments in American politics played out live in American living rooms for the first time ever, such as Nixon/Kennedy debates of the 1960 presidential election, the Johnson/Goldwater debates of the 1964 presidential election, and the 1968 Democratic Convention.
In short, this new mass media had taken over America, and it developed an entirely new relationship between the public and their leaders.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution, 1964