In the political climate of the US today, it is easy to assume that Americans have always considered their government corrupt. Some may have, but it really wasn't until the mid-sixties that true distain and distrust for the government and particularly the presidency took shape. These perceptions really began to dominate American’s thinking when the truth started to come out about the Vietnam War because of the Pentagon Papers, the violence that accompanied putting down student’s anti-war protests, and the media’s involvement in broadcasting the horrors of the Vietnam War. The government both under Lyndon B Johnson and Richard Nixon claimed to have tried to take action to end the war, but when Nixon finally struck a deal with the North Vietnamese,
