In the beginning of the sixties it was possible the first time to “follow” the war in the living room, watching TV. Die pictures of the destroyed villages in Vietnam, of killed and wounded American soldiers showed quiet plainly the ugly face of war to millions of viewers.
The peace movement gained profit of the direct, uncensored coverage- so the government lost the “battle” on the “home front”. The pentagon beared the consequences. Since the Vietnam war the military is controlling the display of the American military actions systematically.
In the latest war in Iraqi only so called “embedded” journalists, who had so sign a contract with the US Army, were able to report. ZDF-Histroy shows the development of this form of censorship and examines how the “picture of war” changed since that time.