Group Differences in Early Support for Military Action in the Gulf

Abstract

The article reports significant group differences in early support for military action in the Persian Gulf. Although the literature has reported mixed results on gender differences in foreign policy, the authors find a large and consistent gender gap that withstands controls for demographic and political variables. They also find significant racial and ethnic differences, with blacks, Hispanics, Arab-Americans, and Jews all less supportive of military action than whites. The racial gap widened when President Bush vetoed the civil rights bill, suggesting that domestic political events can affect foreign policy attitudes. Finally, they find significant generational differences, but these differences are almost exactly the opposite of those generally predicted by generational theories of foreign policy attitudes. The Vietnam generation and the Cold War generation were the most supportive, whereas the World War II and Reagan-Bush generations were substantially less supportive. These results hint at a life-cycle explanation of foreign policy attitudes.