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GCSE History · key term
The gap between official government claims and what the public believed was happening, which weakened trust in those governing the country.
Used by AQA, Edexcel and OCR
Paper 1
The difference between government accounts of the Vietnam War and the events reported by journalists, which weakened public trust in official statements.
Revise: Opposition to WarThis helped create a credibility gap: a difference between what the government claimed and what people saw reported. Even if US forces could defeat an attack militarily, viewers could still question whether official promises of progress were realistic.
Paper 3
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This loss of trust is often described as a credibility gap. Television did not automatically turn every viewer against the war, but it gave people evidence with which to challenge official claims. Newspaper investigations and published photographs also played an important role, particularly in exposing My Lai.
Paper 1
A loss of trust caused by the difference between government claims and what people believed was actually happening.
Revise: The Vietnam War: Withdrawal and ImpactReports that appeared to contradict optimistic statements by politicians and military leaders helped create a credibility gap: people increasingly doubted whether the government was telling them the truth. Seeing the war did not make every viewer oppose it, but it made official claims of progress harder to accept without question.
A gap between government statements and what the public believes to be true, particularly associated with official claims about progress in the Vietnam War.