Hello all,
This past weekend (5/27-5/29), I went to a Model United Nations Conference called KingMUN. Model United Nations (or MUN for short) is a debate-styled competition where there are many committees each trying to solve an issue currently in the world, in the past, in the future, or even completely made up. Students (or delegates as they are called) are each assigned a position in the committee, and they have to work with other delegates to solve the problem while representing their position's stance on the view. It is a blast doing these competitions and trying to solve a problem while also debating with other fellow delegates.
in KingMUN, which was a MUN competition for those in the King County area in Washington State, I was a part of a pair of committees called JCC or Joint Crisis Committee. This type of MUN committee consists of two opposing groups that must solve the issue at hand while also coming to a consensus. Now, this specific topic was about the Vietnam War and the two opposing committees were the U.S. Government vs. the Press. As the U.S. were trying to combat the war, the press were constantly revealing secrets and other actions that the Government was doing. Thus, the Press and Government had to come to an agreement to let the public see the war while also not knowing any confidential information. I was apart of the Government Bloc and it was complete fun for two days. I learned a ton and found out about things I never even knew about.
Before the competition starts, each delegate must write a page called a Position Paper on their specific role's position on the problem. As part of the Government group, I was assigned the role of the Secretary of the Treasury. Writing a paper on the Secretary's role was really enlightening and I realized that there was more to the Vietnam War than what was actually going on in Vietnam.
At the end of every MUN conference, the winners of certain awards are announced for each committee. The awards include Best Speaking Delegate, Outstanding Speaking Delegate, Honorable Mention Speaking Delegate, and finally Best Position Paper. I am extremely proud to announce that I won the Best Position Paper award for the JCC Government Committee, and I am even more proud to share my position paper with you all. I would like to thank my Mom and Dad for pushing me to write to the best I can and showing me how much hard work pays off. Below, is my paper. Hope you enjoy!
______________________________________
Advaith Shyam, Secretary of Treasury
Eastlake High School
JCC [Govt.]
Topic A | Press at War: Vietnam
It’s 1964, and the Vietnam War has been
ongoing for the past nine years now. After the retreat of the Japanese forces
at the end of World War II, Vietnam was divided on the independence from
Western influence. While the communist North Vietnam worked on uniting both the
North and the Western-backed South Vietnam, the United States (U.S.) is now
involved in the war to prevent the spread of communism, more commonly known as
the “Domino Effect”. Due to the rapid increase in media and technology, the
Vietnam War is getting covered by many TV news channels and outlets. It began
with the reporting of successes of the U.S. military but is slowly evolving
into the coverage of losses and bad actions taken by the military and even
leaking of confidential government information. This is leading to a
significant drop in public and military support. It is imminent for the U.S.
government to act soon as this could result in severe economic repercussions as
well as an increased number of casualties.
Early in the war, the U.S. government
implemented actions to prevent the leaking of confidential information. This
was done by instituting special news credentials that allowed the media to
cover the right news from the Vietnam War. This was initially done during World
War II to boost public morale and to prevent the leaking of confidential
military secrets. The use of specific credentials saved millions of dollars
that helped the U.S., and the Allies win the war. It is becoming evident that
the U.S. cannot stop the media completely from covering the Vietnam War due to
the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution that states "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Based on abiding to the constitution, the U.S. government cannot censor or suspend the press to cover news regarding the Vietnam War.
Riding on their rising popularity, the
news channels in the U.S. are generating significant income from viewership by
leaking both good and bad news. Leaked coverage included the Battle of Ap Bac
and use of weapons of mass destruction such as the incendiary weapon, Napalm.
This is leading to public outrage and enemy forces such as the Viet Cong are now
more informed. It is also noteworthy to note from the Secretary of Treasury
that the costs of the Vietnam War are skyrocketing to over $100B. This is in
addition to the U.S. debt of $312B. Solutions need to be put in place to garner
public support, prevent an economic depression, and abiding laws such as the
First Amendment.
To solve this problem, the Secretary of
the Treasury proposes a regular engagement between the government and the
press. This would lead to transparency in
addressing concerns, gain trust from both the press and the public, and to keep
the media informed. Additionally, the Secretary is proposing to assign
journalists to certain military units from where they can cover and report the
war. These journalists will be assigned to a certain military unit, allowed to
stay within the premises, and will cover updates only from their assigned
group. This will restrict coverage, gain trust, and save costs by eliminating
the need to create multiple military operations. Both these solutions will
bring the government and the press together and form a partnership to serve the
public during this difficult time of the Vietnam War.
Here is a picture of my award:
Thanks for checking out this post! See you soon and look out for another post.
Sincerely,
Advaith
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