The Pro-War Movement

The Pro-war Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism By Sandra Scanlon, published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2013. This book offers a fresh perspective on the Vietnam War, focusing on those Americans who supported it and its impact on the conservative movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. The pro-war movement pushed for increased military intervention in Southeast Asia, lobbied for intensified bombing campaigns, and endorsed Nixon's policies of phased withdrawal. As the war dragged on with no clear end in sight, internal divisions eroded the confidence of pro-war conservatives, forcing them to reevaluate their hardline Cold War rhetoric. Despite this, they continued to use grassroots patriotic campaigns to marshal support for the war, particularly among white ethnic workers opposed to the antiwar movement. This shift altered the nature and direction of the conservative agenda in both foreign and domestic policy. Scanlon's analysis sheds new light on the complex and often contradictory views within the pro-war movement, revealing its lasting influence on modern American conservatism.