Public Opinion and the Defence Effort: Trends and Lessons

Abstract

By the middle of 1982 it was possible to describe three salient themes which underlay American public opinion with regard to defence and foreign affairs. Deriving from these themes were a wide range of attitudes regarding allies and adversaries, support for and opposition to specific policy initiatives, and the presumed foreign policy mandate which the public has (or has not) offered the Reagan Government. The themes, stated most broadly, are:

• The American public, buffeted by domestic and international events which have shaken presumptions of hegemony, eminence and even potency in world affairs, have been rudely awakened to a world in which the United States can neither dictate nor dominate, and perhaps not even arbitrate. Yet no coherent set of principles has been offered by any recent Administration which would help the public to shape its expectations under these new circumstances. In a variety of situations, bombast has filled in where consistent policy was absent, and the inadvertent result over the period of the last six years is a public mood which is alternately assertive and angry, or disappointed and sullen. There is an inherent instability in a public whose psychology is simultaneously apprehensive and extrovert.