A People's History of the United States

In the early seventies, the system seemed out of control-it could not hold the loyalty of the public. As early as 1970, according to the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center, "trust in government" was low in every section of the population. And there was a significant difference by class. Of professional people, 40 percent had «low» political trust in the government; of unskilled blue-collar workers, 66 percent had «low» trust.

Public opinion surveys in 1971-after seven years of intervention in Vietnam-showed an unwillingness to come to the aid of other countries, assuming they were attacked by Communist- backed forces. Even for countries allied to the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or Mexico, right on our southern border, there was no majority opinion for intervening with American troops. As for Thailand, if it were under Communist attack, only 12 percent of whites interrogated would send troops, 4 percent of nonwhites would do so.