Americans on the War Divided, Glum, Unwilling to uit

Americans on the War Divided, Glum, Unwilling to Quit

NEARLY five years after the 1965 buildup, Americans are increasingly impatient for a way out of Viet Nam, skeptical about the outcome of the fighting and ambivalent about the means of ending it. More than a third of the public want immediate, unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces—a sizable figure in support of a policy that until recently was overwhelmingly held to be unthinkable and disastrous.

Yet, considering the outpouring of antiwar feeling on Moratorium Day, it is remarkable how much support remains for the policy of ending the war in honorable fashion, short of complete abandonment of South Viet Nam. The President enjoys considerable support; a majority backs him on the rate of troop withdrawal and on the matter of self-determination for South Viet Nam.

Seeming contradictions abound in the American mood. Four-fifths of the nation profess to be "fed up and tired of the war"; yet half do not want to see the U.S. "cut and run" from Southeast Asia, and more than half believe the present pace of troop withdrawals is about right or too fast. Nearly half of the public would favor continued withdrawal even if it meant collapse of the Saigon government, and more than 40% feel that the country will probably go Communist despite U.S. efforts. Yet a majority still hope to preserve a non-Communist regime in Saigon.

These are findings of a new TIME-Louis Harris poll to determine how much support exists among Americans for the war and for alternatives in pursuing or ending it. In order to identify the differences between the general public and those expected to be better informed on the war's complexities, the TIME-Harris interviewers polled two samples—1,650 members of a cross section of the entire population and 1,118 national and community leaders. The second group included only public officials, chiefs of minority and dissident organizations, business executives, editors, leaders of educational and voluntary institutions—those whose collective voice registers loudest in public debate.

The results suggest that growing impatience with the war especially among the leaders—could undermine President Nixon's efforts to carry out a program of controlled disengagement. But they also show that Nixon has managed to win broad support for two crucial points of his Viet Nam policy—withdrawal of American troops pegged to "Vietnamization" of the war, and holding out for the right of South Vietnamese self-determination. Fully three-quarters of the public polled favor the President's program of troop withdrawals. But half of the general public would be willing to back Nixon in one last attempt to escalate and win.

Still, reports Harris, a mood of pessimism—not unlike that of France following its 1954 debacle in Indo-China —pervades the country. "The irony," says Harris, "is that the American mood is as pessimistic as it is without a Dienbienphu."