Vietnam vs. Iraq

"A lot of people talk about comparisons between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war," says the Gallup polling organization's Frank Newport. Since Gallup has been taking opinion polls throughout both wars, it is able to make some meaningful statistical comparisons between the two. Newport reviews the data and points out that in the case of Vietnam, it took three years for the majority of Americans to decide that the war was a mistake, whereas that point was reached in Iraq within less than a year and a half. "When we compare the two wars," he says, "it took longer for Americans to sour on the Vietnam war than it took for Americans to sour on the war in which the country is involved now."