policy - The Black Vault

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indicate that public support for the war declined sharply after the Chinese
Communists entered the war on North Korea's side and the United Nations
forces were pushed back down the peninsula. More striking even than the
drop of support for the war caused by the Chinese action is the constancy
of opinion for the remaining two-and-a-half years of the war. 17/
During the early stages of the Korean war, President Truman was
able to count on strong bipartisan support for the war effort. However,
congressional support dissipated as public support also weakened. Truman's
critics, largely in the right wing of the Republican Party, found a receptive
and growing audience as battlefield events took a negative turn and
the conflict turned into a bloody stalemate. 18/
In order to compare the public support for the Korean War with
that which was evident during World War II, it is helpful to review the
factors that influenced public support during World War II: 19/
0 A sense of participating in a national crusade,
* Success, A
0 Time,
0 Casualties, and
0 Impact on civilian life.
The relative clarity of public support for President Truman's war
policies seems to have dissipated as the war dragged on and the US forces
were unable to produce a relatively constant string of successes that had
characterized World War II. The Chinese intervention reduced the support
for the war to a group that did not expect the war to be short, and that
core of support seems to have remained constant for the duration of the war
in spite of the mounting casualties and evident lack of martial success.
The Korean War lasted 3 1/2 years. The support for the war seems
largely to have been impervious to events, though Figure 1-1 indicates a
slight decline of support over time. Only at the end of the war when
'S,
_ F President Eisenhower acted to break the stalemate, did public support for
the war appear to rise.
Casualty figures rose rapidly in the early stages of the Korean
Wa, as the conflict shifted up and down the peninsula. After mid-1951 when
1-10
I; .
A) __ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _