No future president will have the leisure that Kennedy had to think about the Soviet missiles in Cuba, but presidents should seriously consider buffering the early decision-making process as much as possible. Presidents cannot presume that they can maintain a monopoly on information for long. Thanks in part to television, just as a Kennedy in 1993 could not keep the missiles secret for six days, Bush could not expect to keep the shape and timing of the initial attack on Baghdad secret for long. Television allows presidents to communicate with adversary leaders and populations. Just as Kennedy spoke to the Cuban people and Ford spoke to the Cambodians, Bush tried to use CNN and other networks to influence Saddam Hussein and his people.
Television can seriously affect relations with allies.
Had Saddam learned from television of the American deployment in Saudi Arabia before it was announced, the troops and the Saudis could have been badly endangered. Had Israelis not seen the effectiveness of the Patriot on television, they might not have been so willing to stay out of the Gulf War. LBJ's notion that Vietnam was lost on television is questionable. Nonetheless, experience suggests that it is in a president's interest to design U.S. military ventures to be as brief and telegenic as possible. Since it is hard to argue that the bloodshed necessarily strengthens public support for war making and since the modern attention span is ever shorter, a president benefits from brevity and bloodlessness.