1980s to say that the Vietnam War was wrong, considering that the United
States fought it and Presidents Reagan and Bush still defended it, shows strong
opposition and independence of thought.
18 William L. Lunch and Peter W. Sprelich, “American Public Opinion and the
War in Vietnam,” Western Political Quarterly 32 (1979): 33-34. Leon
Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson,
1957). Festinger’s theory also explains why male college students during
World War II, who knew they were going to fight, were more pro-war than
skilled electricians and welders, who knew they were going to be deferred to
work in war industries. Both groups were bringing their opinions into line with
their anticipated future actions, which they could not easily change.
19 John Mueller, Presidents and Public Opinion (New York: Wiley, 1973),
70-74; Harris poll reported in Boston Globe, 7/14/1969, on support for the
Apollo program; see also Samuel P. Huntington, The Common Defense, 235-
39.
20 “Foreign Policy Attitudes Now Driven by 9/11 and Iraq,” Pew Trust
survey, 8/18/2004, pewtrusts.org/ideas/ideas, 10/2006.
21 College students particularly have this reason to err, for they have “chosen”
(under the influence of their parents and their class position) to get college
educations. In line with the principles of cognitive dissonance, they are likely
to agree that people benefit from being in college and conclude that education
leads to tolerance and wisdom. Many Americans see schooling as a panacea
for racial inequality, environmental problems, or poverty.
22 Richard F. Hamilton, Restraining Myths (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1975), 118,
159; Lunch and Sprelich, “American Public Opinion and the War in Vietnam,”
35-36.
23 The American Tradition encourages this wrong thinking by including a
photograph of hard-hat counterdemonstrators supporting Nixon on Vietnam.
“Who comprised the ‘silent majority’?” Tradition asks, implying that working-
class Americans did. Land of Promise similarly claims that a backlash among
less educated people against “students who were leading the peace movement”
allowed Nixon to continue the war.
24 Pew Research Center spokesperson summarizing information from 2005
survey, phone interview, 5/7/2007.