Casualties of War and Politics: American Electoral Politics and the Korean and Vietnam Wars

This project examines the questions of whether and how the costs of war - in purely human terms - affects the conduct of domestic politics. The study focuses on the link between U.S. casualties, Congressional policies, and electoral politics during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Casualties are seen as a framing mechanism that determines the relative salience of war as a political issue and interacts with candidate positions to influence electoral outcomes. Incumbent positions, interacting with challenger positions and a state's casualty rate, shape electoral outcomes, controlling for other well-recognized peace-time predictors of Senate elections. This research will allow assessment of the claim that the link between foreign and domestic politics was unique in the Vietnam War, a relationship that fundamentally changed over time after the 1968 Tet offensive. The modeling strategy and analysis plan adopted by the principal investigators permits a broader and deeper understanding of the processes of political representation.