Southerners and the Decisions for War, 1965–1966

During 1965 and 1966, President Johnson made the decision for major US aerial and ground combat in Vietnam. Russell and Fulbright facilitated LBJ’s determination to minimize congressional and public debate on these decisions during 1965, and the South provided the president’s most dependable congressional and public support for the war. However, by late 1965 Fulbright, Gore, and Cooper had emerged as leading critics of the conflict; and in early 1966, Fulbright chaired the televised Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) hearings that constituted the first true public debate over US involvement in Vietnam.

In addition to examining these developments, this chapter presents editorial opinions from major southern papers and the responses of the southern public to the war (via Gallup polling and constituent correspondence) and highlights the experience of Frazier T. Woolard, a small-town, antiwar North Carolina attorney.