As the PBS Vietnam story moves into the growing American anti-war movement. I want to clarify some facts about that opposition.
First, it is a myth that the young were more opposed to the war than older adults. I bought into the myth, but it was quite the opposite. In an article titled, “Two Sources of Antiwar Sentiment in America,” by Howard Schuman, two large scale surveys contradicted this popular myth. Gallop polls and the Detroit Area Survey of 1971 found people over 50 opposed the war by 73% & 74%; 30-49 year olds by 67% & 66%; while those 21 to 29 were opposed by 63% & 68%.
It was easy to be sucked into the myth. After all, it was the young who were being drafted and dying, not the older men. And on TV, it was young college people demonstrating against the war while WWII vets were carrying American flags and supporting the war. Those non-random samples biased our perceptions.
So why did older adults oppose the war more? They are the ones who lost fathers, brothers, and friends in previous wars. They had sons and grandsons who were being drafted and returning in body bags. Younger people think they will live forever. Think about the first time your child drove a car at night. Who was worried? It wasn’t the teen, it was the parents who worried and didn’t sleep until s/he returned.
Both 1971 surveys found that females opposed the war more than males, blacks more than whites, and the more educated more than the less educated.
Opposition was not so much a moral issue for most Americans. The primary driving force was dead Americans. In the in-depth interviews, the general public rarely mentioned dead Vietnamese. Only the college samples mentioned them. Secondary rationales included “we are not winning,” and “this is a civil war.”
The PBS series is a tough watch for some, but I believe a necessary one. It includes lessons that might help us through our current national struggles.