Stephen Harding wrote in message ...
Kevin Brooks wrote:

[snip some interesting stats and possible myths of Vietnam]

old draftees killed, only *seven* were black); and Vietnam was the first
unpopular US war (false, at least in an arguable sense; he points out that a
1937 poll indicated that fully 64% of Americans considered our entry into
WWI as being a blunder, and two years after WWII 25% of Americans thought
our participation in *that* war had been a misguided); and lastly (Art

One could argue on that percentage basis that the Revolution was
even more unpopular. None other than Ben Franklin put the split
between rebel/loyalist/fence sitter at about 1/3 each. The Mexican
War was rather controversial in Congress, and of course, the Civil
War had its bad days when northern opinion in support would be low.
The "sour taste" of WWI involvement after the fact in the US is well
known, and pretty much drove isolationist sentiment.
[snip]

The truth is that most wars in the US have been relatively
unpopular, and poorly viewed by history as well. WWII was probably
the lone exception. It's probably "improved" with age.

The US started out with a fairly isolationist tradition
and wars tended to be ones of expansion, which weren't always
popular everywhere. The Civil War was extremely unpopular and
resulted in riots in some cites which would make most Vietnam
protest look like picnics. An interesting read is "A Country
Made by War". Less about wars themselves and more about the
lead ins and their effects on the country in general.

How history treats the "cold war" will be interesting, partially in
exactly how they define it and just how "cold" they consider it.