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The USA, 1954–75: Conflict at Home and Abroad

Support for the war

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Why most Americans backed the war at first, Cold War anti-communism, why protest seemed disloyal, the groups that backed it, economic reasons, the hard hats, Nixon's silent majority and how support fell after Tet.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Which groups were most likely to back the war?

Key term

What economic reasons made some Americans want the war to continue?

Key term

What did Nixon mean by the ‘silent majority’?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why did most Americans support the war when it began?

    Model answer

    They accepted that communism had to be stopped from spreading and believed their country had a duty to defend a small ally against it.

  2. 2

    How did earlier anti-communist feeling shape attitudes to Vietnam?

    Model answer

    Years of Cold War propaganda and the hunt for communists at home had left many Americans convinced that any communist advance anywhere was a threat to the USA itself.

  3. 3

    Why did many Americans think protest against the war was disloyal?

    Model answer

    With troops under fire, criticism seemed to encourage the enemy and insult the men doing the fighting.

  4. 4

    Which groups were most likely to back the war?

    Model answer

    Older Americans, veterans of the Second World War and Korea, many working-class families, religious conservatives and much of the South.

  5. 5

    What economic reasons made some Americans want the war to continue?

    Model answer

    Defence contracts and military bases meant orders, wages and jobs in many industries and towns.

  6. 6

    Who were the ‘hard hats’?

    Model answer

    Building workers, named after their helmets, who marched in support of the war and in 1970 broke up an anti-war demonstration in New York with their fists.

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