A term coined for the Vietnam War, referring to the fact that it was the first war that could be shown on television - with all the repercussions that came from most Americans seeing the war's tremendous violence for the first time. By the time the Gulf War rolled around, the government-controlled media in the United States had managed to turn the concept of a "television war" to political advantage, tightly controlling what images were shown and what concepts were shared with the public - for example, never showing troops in battle, and introducing terms like "surgical strike" for messy bombing of civilians.