American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy: National Leaders, 1979

Resource Information

The work American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy: National Leaders, 1979 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Bowdoin College Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy: National Leaders, 1979

Creator

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]
• Chicago Council on Foreign Relations

Author

• Chicago Council on Foreign Relations

Contributor

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]

Subject

• arms race
• communist threat
• diplomacy
• domestic policy
• foreign affairs
• foreign aid
• foreign policy
• international relations
• leadership
• military intervention
• Cold War
• national interests
• national security
• policy making
• political attitudes
• political influence
• political participation
• public approval
• public opinion
• survey
• national elites
• International relations
• Intervention (International law)
• Policy sciences

Genre

• survey

Summary

These data were gathered in personal interviews with respondents who represented Americans in senior positions with knowledge of and influence upon international affairs and foreign policy by the Gallup Organization, Inc., between November 20, 1978, and January 12, 1979. These individuals were chosen from the areas of national politics, governmental offices, business, education, the media, national unions, and other organizations with national influence. Respondents were asked to list the biggest problems facing the country, in general, as well as the biggest foreign policy problems. Other questions explored the relationship between domestic and foreign policy priorities, e.g., aid to education, defense spending, farm subsidies, and domestic welfare/relief programs. Respondents' opinions were sought about the roles of various individuals and institutions in the creation of foreign policy, and the appropriate responses of the United States to actions by the former Soviet Union and other countries. They also guaged the threat of communism to the United States in several countries. Other questions covered foreign economic aid, military aid/selling military equipment to other nations, the role of the United States in world affairs, and the use of United States troops in other parts of the world. Respondents were asked to rate the performance of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and opinions were sought about the type of role that various individuals and institutions (e.g., the president, the CIA, the military, the United Nations, and the Congress) should play in the creation of foreign policy. Respondents' political participation and orientation was also measured. In a similar survey conducted in November 1978, many of the same questions were asked of a sample of the general public in the United States. The results of that survey are collected in AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY: GENERAL PUBLIC, 1979 (ICPSR 7748)