The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism PDF
Preview The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism
Scanlon The Pro-War In the vast literature on the Vietnam War, much has been written about the antiwar movement and its influence on U.S. policy and politics. In this book, Sandra Scanlon shifts attention to those Americans who supported MT MoveMenT the war and explores the war’s impact on the burgeoning conservative h political movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. o e Believing the Vietnam War to be a just and necessary cause, the pro- v war movement pushed for more direct American military intervention in P Domestic Support for the vietnam War and the Southeast Asia throughout the Kennedy administration, lobbied for inten- er sified bombing during the Johnson years, and offered coherent, if divided, Mo Making of Modern american Conservatism endorsements of Nixon’s policies of phased withdrawal. Although its - political wing was dominated by individuals and organizations associated eW with Barry Goldwater’s presidential bids, the movement incorporated a n a broad range of interests and groups united by a shared antipathy to the Sandra Scanlon Tr New Deal order and liberal Cold War ideology. Appealing to patriotism, conservative leaders initially rallied popular support in favor of total victory and later endorsed Nixon’s call for “peace with honor.” Yet as the war dragged on with no clear end in sight, inter- nal divisions eroded the confidence of pro-war conservatives in achiev- ing their aims and forced them to reevaluate the political viability of their hardline Cold War rhetoric. Conservatives still managed to make use of grassroots patriotic campaigns to marshal support for the war, particularly among white ethnic workers opposed to the antiwar movement. Yet in so doing, Scanlon concludes, they altered the nature and direction of the con- servative agenda in both foreign and domestic policy for years to come. “A definitive history of how the pro-war argument was constructed in America during the Vietnam War, and also how the conservative move- ment developed a complex and variegated response to the conflict.” —Gregory L. Schneider, author of Cadres for Conservatism: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of the Contemporary Right SanDra SCanlon is lecturer in American history at University College, Dublin. A volume in the series Culture, Politics, and the Cold War M a S S a UnIverSITY oF MaSSa ChUSeTTS PreSS C h Amherst and Boston www.umass.edu/umpress U S e Cover photo by Garry Winogrand, Hard Hat Rally, New York, T gelatin silver print, 1969. Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery. T S “This page intentionally left blank” The Pro-War MoveMenT a volume in the series Culture, Politics, and the Cold War edited by Christian G. Appy other titles in the series James T. Fisher, Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1927–1961 Daniel Horowitz, Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism Tom Engelhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation Christian G. Appy, ed., Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism, 1945–1966 H. Bruce Franklin, Vietnam and Other American Fantasies Robert D. Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy Lee Bernstein, The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America David C. Engerman, Nils Gilman, Mark H. Haefele, and Michael E. Latham, eds., Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War Jonathan Nashel, Edward Lansdale’s Cold War James Peck, Washington’s China: The National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins of Globalism Edwin A. Martini, Invisible Enemies: The American War on Vietnam, 1975–2000 Tony Shaw, Hollywood’s Cold War Maureen Ryan, The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the Aftermath in American Narratives of the Vietnam War David Hunt, Vietnam’s Southern Revolution: From Peasant Insurrection to Total War Patrick Hagopian, The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing Jeremy Kuzmarov, The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs Robert Surbrug Jr., Beyond Vietnam: The Politics of Protest in Massachusetts, 1974–1990 Larry Grubbs, Secular Missionaries: Americans and African Development in the 1960s Robert A. Jacobs, The Dragon’s Tail: Americans Face the Atomic Age Andrew J. Falk, Upstaging the Cold War: American Dissent and Cultural Diplomacy, 1940–1960 Jerry Lembcke, Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal Anna G. Creadick, Perfectly Average: The Pursuit of Normality in Postwar America Kathleen Donohue, ed., Liberty and Justice for All? Rethinking Politics in Cold War America Jeremy Kuzmarov, Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation Building in the American Century Roger Peace, A Call to Conscience: The Anti–Contra War Campaign Edwin A. Martini, Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty The Pro-War MoveMenT Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism Sandra Scanlon university of massachusetts press Amherst and Boston Copyright © 2013 by University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-1-55849-62534-018-4 (paper); 017-7 (hardcover) Designed by Sally Nichols Set in Palatino Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scanlon, Sandra. The pro-war movement : domestic support for the Vietnam War and the making of modern American conservatism / Sandra Scanlon. pages cm. — (Culture, politics, and the Cold War) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-62534-017-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-62534-018-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—Political aspects—United States. 2. Conservatism—United States—History—20th century. 3. Public opinion—United States—History—20th century. 4. United States—Politics and government—1961–1963. 5. United States—Politics and government—1963–1969. 6. United States—Politics and government—1969–1974. I. Title. DS559.62.U6S33 2013 959.704’31—dc23 2013009435 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. To Dónal and Liam “This page intentionally left blank” Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xiii Introduction Conservatives and the Vietnam War 1 1. No Substitute for Victory The Beginnings of a War 17 2. The Loyal Opposition? The Push for Victory, 1965–1968 43 3. Conservatives for Nixon The Domestic Politics of Vietnam, 1968–1969 72 4. From Victory to Honor Making Peace with Withdrawal, 1969–1972 125 5. The Search for a New Majority Popular Support for the War 184 6. Tell It to Hanoi Student Pro-War Campaigns 242 7. Snatching Victory The Endings of a War 289 Conclusion Defining the Vietnam War 328 Notes 343 Index 389 [ vii ] “This page intentionally left blank”
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