As the nations that made up the Allied forces ready for Thursday’s 75th anniversary of D-Day, a sizable majority of Americans believe another world war is likely to take place in the next 40 years.
The latest YouGov poll also found that 40% believe that the U.S. and its allies “could effectively collaborate” on another D-Day, the landing on France that led to the end of World War II with Germany.
And while there are concerns about war in the future, YouGov said that fewer adults believe World War III will happen than did last year when 64% predicted the next global clash.
The survey was a timely look at how the country views U.S. wars as the President Trump tours Normandy.
It also found that more American adults also said that World War II was the most justified. Some 66% said it was “completely justified” or “somewhat justified.”
Next was the American Revolution, at 62%.
Recent wars, however, were generally rated unjustified.
Just 22%, for example, called the Vietnam War justified. The numbers were slightly higher for the two Gulf wars.
From the article on the survey analysis by Linley Sanders: “The general public isn’t convinced that America’s military involvement is always warranted. The Vietnam War is regarded by a majority of U.S. adults as ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ justified (55%), though that sentiment increases based on generation. Baby Boomers are the most likely (64%) to consider the Vietnam War unjustified, compared to 52% of Gen Xers and 43% of Millennials.”
“America’s longest ongoing military action, the War in Afghanistan, is regarded as reasonable by 35% of adults, but 42% say it’s unjustified,” Sanders wrote. “There is a clean political split regarding the current military engagement in Afghanistan: a majority of Republicans (56%) consider it justified compared to a majority of Democrats (55%) who say it is not.”
