GROUP-DIFFERENCES IN EARLY SUPPORT FOR MILITARY ACTION IN THE GULF - THE EFFECTS OF GENDER, GENERATION, AND ETHNICITY

The article reports significant group differences in early support for military action in the Persian Gulf. Although the literature has repo rted mixed results on gender differences in foreign policy, the author s find a large and consistent gender gap that withstands controls for demographic and political variables. They also find significant racial and ethnic differences, with blacks, Hispanics, Arab-Americans, and J ews all less supportive of military action than whites. The racial gap widened when President Bush vetoed the civil rights bill, suggesting that domestic political events can affect foreign policy attitudes. Fi nally, they find significant generational differences, but these diffe rences are almost exactly the opposite of those generally predicted by generational theories of foreign policy attitudes. The Vietnam genera tion and the Cold War generation were the most supportive, whereas die World War II and Reagan-Bush generations were substantially less supp ortive. These results hint at a life-cycle explanation of foreign poli cy attitudes.