"Protracted conflict": National Review opinion of the Vietnam war, 1955-1975

Abstract

The thesis evaluates the impact of the Vietnam War on Conservative thinkers writing in the National Review. It is based on articles published in that journal between 1955 and 1975 and on other publications of the National Review's editors, columnists, and occasional contributors. These sources reveal that the Vietnam War had a moderating effect on the journal's opinion of American foreign policy. The thesis is divided into four sections. The first introduces the ideological foundations of the journal's anti- Communism. The second describes its initial response to the U.S. decision to commit military personnel and material to Vietnam in the early sixties. The third deals with the journal's internal divisions which emerged as the war escalated during the mid and late sixties. The last section describes the change in attitudes resulting from the experience of the war and the ascendence of younger and less extreme Conservative commentators.