policy - The Black Vault

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'mistake' and 63 percent had said it was 'morally wrong'."5/ In fact, no
such percentage of the American people had spoken on the issue. Mr. Harris
might more accurately have stated: "our polls indicate that these percentages
of the American people held these views."
It is dangerous to take the results of polls as an absolutely accurate
reflection of the US public's attitude toward the war because of the
varying levels of information held by the public concerning foreign policy
issues.6/ Despite the fact that the US government had years to explain the
war to the people and that the media reported the war in great detail to
the exte.it that it has been called "the most reported war in history,"
widespread ignorance existed concerning even basic information about
"Vietnam and the war. Further, it is important to note that some of the
public will take a position on an issue about which they know very little.
Hence, it is valid to question the accuracy and even the importance of
assertions by pollsters that the US public was taking specific stands on
individual policies related to the war effort. 7/
The second reason the polls do not provide a very accurate and meaningful
description of the public's opinion on the war arises from the
weaknesses of the testing instruments themselves, that is weaknesses which
are directly linked to problems in the questions asked.8/ Depending on the
way the questions were phrased, varying responses could be obtained from 59
the population sample being polled. Typically more "hawkish" responses
were elicited by questions that gave information about government policies,
that mentioned the President's name and that employed emotion evoking words 1
like "national defense" or "the nation's enemy." Since the reaction to the
wording of a question can evoke dramatically different responses from the
individuals being polled, great care has to be taken in assessing the
"meaning of the polls.
?: Finally, the polls are suspect as measures of the public's reactions
to policies because of the use politicians have made of polls and the
polling device. Politicians have consistently distorted the implications -
of polls to support and defend their policies.9/
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