In the early 1970s satellite transmissions meant that Americans could watch history unfold as it happened. Because more Americans were watching, television branched out and offered live coverage of important news events.

In the early part of the decade, the Vietnam War as well as the protests over the war across the country were televised into American homes. In a very real sense, it was the images of American men dying on camera that helped fuel much of the opposition to the war.

Television viewers also watched the shooting of four student protesters at Kent State University and the deaths of two more a week later at Jackson State University, events that led to protests at more than 1,200 other colleges and universities most of which were also covered by television cameras.

Certainly, television changed the way America fought wars. By early 1973 the last of American ground...