Iraq versus Vietnam

The Gallup Organization has just released a comparison of public opinion trends regarding the current war in Iraq and the Vietnam War. There are some interesting findings, here’s the summary:

Although public support for both the Vietnam and the Iraq wars was strong as each conflict began, at least as measured by Gallup’s “mistake” question, opposition to the latter has escalated much more quickly. Within a year and three months of the Iraq war’s inception, a majority of Americans said it was a mistake. It wasn’t until over three years after the inception of the Vietnam War that a majority called it a mistake.

At the same, Americans much more quickly perceived that the Vietnam War was a major problem facing the United States, with over two-thirds naming it as the nation’s most important problem within the war’s second year. By contrast, even today, some two years and five months after the Iraq war began, only a little more than a fourth of Americans say it is the nation’s top problem.

In short, Americans have been quicker to oppose the Iraq war, but less likely to consider it the top problem facing the nation.

With all of this, it is worth remembering that a good deal of the significant societal impact of the Vietnam War did not take place until long after the war’s two-and-a-half-year mark (essentially where the Iraq war is today). Vietnam continued to be a major factor in American life as late as the presidential election of 1972 — some seven years after it began. And — as noted above — the cost of the Vietnam War in terms of human lives was ultimately many degrees higher than the cost of the Iraq war so far. But the fact that a majority of Americans already say Iraq was a mistake, and that it has become perhaps the most significant issue facing the Bush administration today suggests that comparisons between the two situations are not totally unreasonable.

The Media Research Center—the folks you trust to track down all that liberal media bias—rang the CyberAlert alarm bells today about a NBC News report on Tuesday night.

As part of a story comparing the wars in Iraq and Vietnam, NBC reporter Jim Miklazewski oberved that “while there are marked differences between the wars in Iraq and Vietnam, the rhetoric, at least, is beginning to sound much the same.”

Miklaszewski noted that “Rumsfeld ignored the latest polls which indicate a majority of Americans now think it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq.” [on screen: CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll “Iraq war a mistake?” Yes: 54%]

The Rumsfeld confirmed that he could care less about what Americans think: “I think it will have the support of the American people, and it will be sustained and we will be successful.”

So what does the Bush Administration do? Well, send more troops to Iraq. Can anybody say LBJ?

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