The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism

Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond

by Sandra Scanlon

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 the war and explores the war's impact on the burgeoning conservative political movement of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Believing the Vietnam War to be a just and necessary cause, the pro-war movement pushed for more direct American military intervention in Southeast Asia throughout the Kennedy administration, lobbied for intensified bombing during the Johnson years, and offered coherent, if divided, endorsements of Nixon's policies of phased withdrawal. Although its political wing was dominated by individuals and organizations associated with Barry Goldwater's presidential bids, the movement incorporated a broad range of interests and groups united by a shared antipathy to the 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, internal divisions eroded the confidence of pro-war conservatives in achieving 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 conservative agenda in both foreign and domestic policy for years to come.

Genres: History

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2013

About the author

Sandra Scanlon is lecturer in American history at University College, Dublin.

Reviews

[NET7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never knew that there were grassroots movements that were Pro-Interventionist in the Vietnam War. There was a strong, grassroots, working class and student movements, in addition to intellectuals, in favor of the righteous fight in Vietnam against Communist terrorists and their Communist backers, the NVA; see chapters 4 (Intellectual), 5 (Working Class), 6 (Students), and 2 (For All). These individuals and groups were patriotic individuals who believed that their country and the troops were fighting a noble fight in Vietnam against Communism and it was the duty of every American to support them at home. Ignored largely by the mainstream media, who were sympathetic to the Isolationists, sympathetic themselves to the Communists, who wanted to withdraw unilaterally from Vietnam, and despite fierce opposition from treasonous Anti-American movements, the Pro-Interventionist, Support the Troops groups marched, demonstrated, protested, and engaged in other forms of activism supporting the American war effort against the Viet Cong and NVA, and eventually for a policy of "Peace With Honor". While their hard efforts and noble political and social activism for "Peace With Honor" was ruined by the Isolationist 'Doves' from the Democratic Party in Congress who continually undermined Nixon in his attempt to secure a resolution to Vietnam that would allow US troops to withdraw with honor while still securing the long-term survival of South Vietnam, they set the stage for the Reagan Era of Anti-Communist, Patriotic fervor that revitalized the spirit of the nation's belief in itself. It also set the stage for the Neo-Conservative movement, who saw that Vietnam had not been lost in the rice paddies or jungles of Vietnam, but rather in American streets and in the halls of Congress, with the American GI betrayed by radicalized, violent Socialists and Communist agitators and treasonous Progressive politicians who did everything they could to undermine the war effort, and who would make the case that war must be waged totally, with no half measures and no appeasement to Isolationists at home or the enemy abroad.

As a history book, this book is extremely in depth. The author meticulously had included a great deal of history and information on the history leading up to the development of these movements. Chapters 1, 3-4 are content relating to the handling of the war under the Johnson Administration, Conservative politicians like Barry Goldwater and Conservative intellectuals like William F Buckley, the Hawkish Conservatives who developed in those years, their influence on the Nixon campaign and Presidency, the development from total victory to a peace with honor goal as the war went on, and so on. Chapters 2, 5-7 describe the groups involved in the Pro-Intervention, what she calls Pro-War, movements from working class, union groups, the different Conservative student, college campus groups, and the intellectuals in support of the conflict.

This is one of the most in depth history books I've ever read, so be prepared to dedicate yourself to reading, but there is a lot of interesting content, and you will learn a lot about a part of history practically not taught at all today, due to the Isolationist trends within the Democratic, and now even Republican, Party. It certainly must have taken years of research to complete, and I commend the author for the painstaking amount of time she must have taken to thoroughly document the Pro-Intervention Intellectual, Working Class, and Student movements and all the background history.

However, while this author is certainly an excellent researcher and historian on this subject matter, this author is not always kind or honest in her insinuations. In Chapter 7 for example she insinuates that South Vietnam would have fallen even under a Nixon presidency, which was not the case; if Nixon had not been impeached and later resigned, he would have done everything in his power to ensure his policy of "Peace With Honor" would not have been ruined, as it was by the Democrat controlled Congress under President Ford. She does make other insinuations that I didn't appreciate in her final chapter and conclusion. The chapters also are long, and that makes it a harder read than it should be, and I would have advised breaking the book down into shorter chapters to make the book more readable to a non-historian type of person picking up the book. These are the only reasons I give the book a 4 and not a 5.

I would certainly recommend this book for any budding Conservative activist, whether they be an intellectual writing at a journal or newspaper, budding Conservative and Patriotic union leaders wanting to defend our American values and back the men and women in uniform, or a student looking to promote Conservative, Pro-American, Pro-Interventionist ideals on campus, on how to successfully agitate for victory or peace with honor in an age of where far too many people are embracing cowardly and dangerous unilateral withdrawals that only embolden and strengthen our enemies, abandon our friends, and destroy the American spirit. Instead, we must terrify and frighten our enemies with our undying resolve, support and defend our friends to strengthen our alliances showing America's goodwill, and both restore and keep burning bright the American spirit of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice for all, both here on our shores, and abroad in the world.