Hawk/Dove

Names given to supporters and opponents, respectively, of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was not universally popular in the United States. As the administrations of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon expanded the American military role, the American people divided over the appropriateness of the war. Those who supported it were called hawks; those who opposed it were called doves.

Hawks defined the conflict in Vietnam as a Chinese effort to extend control over Southeast Asia, thereby threatening both U.S. and world security. Doves argued that the war was an internal Vietnamese matter in which the United States should not interfere. The dispute between the doves and the hawks over the war divided the country during the 1960s. Hawks, who supported a strong military effort, saw their point of view win out in the early years of the war.

The hawks included many Southern Democrats and a majority of Republicans. They agreed that the effort to stop communism from spreading in Southeast Asia meant that the United States must provide assistance—including military assistance—to noncommunist governments, such as South Vietnam. The hawks wanted the U.S. Air Force unleashed to target economic and military targets in North Vietnam. They felt that the U.S. Army should intercept North Vietnamese supply movements and that the United States should train and equip the army of the Republic of Vietnam. However, the hawks had no adequate answer to the question of what the United States should do if the South Vietnamese proved unwilling or unable to defend themselves.

Even in the beginning, the doves questioned the war. Many regarded North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh as a nationalist rather than a Chinese or Soviet puppet. They felt that the Vietnamese people should be free to choose the form of government they wished, regardless of what form it took. The doves also had major doubts about the legitimacy of the South Vietnamese president, Ngo Dinh Diem. Although Ho Chi Minh seemed to have genuine support in North Vietnam, Diem came to power improperly and maintained his position through corruption, violence, and American aid.

The doves disagreed not only with the politics of the war, but also with the American strategy. The doves assumed that even a victory would come at too great a cost of lives and resources. Unlike the hawks, they did not believe that the war could be won, even if the United States devoted its entire military might to the effort. The doves wanted the bombing of North Vietnam to stop and a settlement to the war negotiated. Even the tendency of North Vietnam to use bombing lulls to increase its efforts in South Vietnam failed to [Page 320]convince the doves that they should reconsider. The doves also tended to ignore the Soviet and Chinese role in supporting the North Vietnamese effort.

Some senators began to express support for dovish positions as early as 1964. The following year, the antiwar movement began, first with fairly low-key affairs such as college teachins. With the continued escalation of the bombing and violence in Vietnam, by 1968 the teachins gave way to mass demonstrations involving as many as 7 million students. As the war dragged on with no victory in sight, criticism grew, and the administrations of Johnson and then Nixon found themselves in the middle, attacked from both sides. By mid-1967, only about one-fourth of the people supported Johnson. Even the hawks were upset because they felt Johnson was restraining the Army and not letting it win the war.

...