Word: modiglianis
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This listing certainly enlarges upon the two initial conclusions reached by Modigliani regarding public opinion on Korea. The interventionists were concentrated in the two highest socio-economic brackets, and this accounts for the positive correlation between the level of SES and opposition to military disengagement. The distrusters, however, were scattered throughout the scale (very roughly represented by groups one and three); hence no overall correlation emerged between SES and support for escalation...
...first Modigliani correlation, that between opposition to disengagement and the interventionist spirit, applies to Vietnam as well as Korea. On the basis of his findings, Modigliani claims that the interventionism so noticeably at work in the early 50's is still a strong influence on the Vietnam opinions of the upper classes...
...contrast, our present distrust of Washington centers around such issues as the discovery of the "credibility gap", not the Red scare; it is difficult to see how preference for escalation could be associated with a disbelief in government casualty figures and progress reports. This fact leaves Professor Modigliani at a loss; he implies we must hold our breath till direct empirical evaluation of the Vietnam trust-distrust factor is possible. In the meantime, at least one interpretation deserves investigation...
...anti-Communism which underlies distrust of the same quality in the lower SES groups as in the higher ones? It cannot be if we go by Modigliani's findings, for the top SES sectors strongly oppose disengagement from Vietnam, while the bottom segments quite clearly...
THAT STIMULUS must come from those sectors which support interventionist policies--namely, as the Modigliani study confirms, the upper socio-economic strata. Members of these classes, who generally have an economic, ideological, or psychological stake in American expansion, know fully well that this expansion cannot be sustained without mass support or at least mass acquiescence. It serves their manifold interests to paint for the benefit of the public a picture of Communism which is as menacing as possible, in order to defend and justify all kinds of American overseas forays...