(See figure 1.)
Subsequent polling data indicates that this heightened level of concern about foreign policy concern lasted into the 1972 election. When respondents were asked in each election poll between 1960 and 1972 what they considered to be the most important issue facing the nation, invariably foreign affairs and national defense received the most mentions. This figure reached a high mark of 62 percent in 1960, the year when John F. Kennedy asserted that the United States lagged behind the Soviet Union in missile production. It was also extremely high in 1968 (51 percent), when the country was embroiled in the Vietnam War, with no clear end in sight and many critics arguing that the United States could not win. Foreign policy remained the number one issue in the 1972
FIGURE 1
| The Most Important Problem the Government Should Try to Take Care of According to Election Year |
| | Agricultural | Economics/Business/Consumer Issues | Foreign Affairs & National Defense | Government Functioning | Labor Issues (not unemployment) | Natural Resources | Public Order | Racial Problems | Social Welfare |
| American National Election Studies 1948–2002 Cumulative Data File. |
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Politics and Elections from Americans at War. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.
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