The Casualty Gap The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities

by Kriner, Douglas L.; Shen, Francis X.

• ISBN13: 9780195390964
• ISBN10: 0195390962
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When Americans think about war casualties, they tend to see them simply as "Americans"--undifferentiated by race or class. One effect of this is that Americans tend to be very supportive of U.S. wars, especially since they equate military service with the quintessentially American ideals of equal opportunity and shared sacrifice. However, as Doug Kriner and Francis Chen show in The Casualty Gap , when presented with the incontrovertible fact that American ideals do not reflect reality, and that casualties come disproportionately from poor and disadvantaged communities, support for war drops markedly. An authoritative account of which Americans really bear the burden of combat, The Casualty Gap is the first book to comprehensively examine the divide from War Two to the Iraq war. They demonstrate conclusively that in every war, poorer Americans from remote counties have been overrepresented in casualty rates. Their conclusion is perhaps not surprising. But it demonstrates once and for all what many only suspected--that historically, the American military is not a shining beacon of equal opportunity, but merely replicates larger and enduring social divides. Kriner and Chen also focus on the broader ramifications of their findings. In particular, what does this state of affairs tell us about a core ideal of modern American democracy, equality of opportunity? What sort of impact does it have on civic and political engagement among the most impacted communities? And, if Americans do become more aware of the gap, will they continue to support U.S. wars at the same level they do now?

Author Biography

Doug Kriner is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston University. He specializes in American politics, separation of powers, domestic politics and the use of force.

Francis Shen is Lecturer in Government at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

The Casualty Gap	p. 3
The Politics of Casualties	p. 7
Plan of the Book	p. 10
Inequality and U.S. Casualties from WWII to Iraq	p. 14
Studying Casualties and Inequality	p. 16
Defining and Measuring the Casualty Gap	p. 17
Geographic Variance in Local Casualty Rates	p. 18
Explaining the Casualty Gap	p. 22
Income and Education	p. 22
Unemployment	p. 22
Race	p. 23
Rural Farm Population	p. 24
Partisanship	p. 25
Geographic Region and Age	p. 26
Assessing the Casualty Gap across Four Wars	p. 26
The Individual-Level Casualty Gap and the Problem of Ecological Inference	p. 40
Examining Socioeconomic Variation within the Community	p. 43
Explaining the Casualty Gap	p. 47
Technical Appendix to Chapter 2	p. 48
Selection, Occupational Assignment, and the Emergence of the Casualty Gap	p. 56
Selection in the Modern Wars	p. 58
The War in Iraq and the AVF	p. 63
Occupational Assignment within the Military	p. 67
The Selection Mechanism Revisited: The Role of the Draft	p. 73
Changes in the Draft and in the Casualty Gap over Time	p. 74
The Draft Lottery and Its Ramifications for the Casualty Gap	p. 76
The Absence of a Draft and the Iraq Casualty Gap	p. 78
Casualty Gaps at the Individual Level	p. 80
Technical Appendix to Chapter 3	p. 83
Do Casualty Gaps Matter?	p. 92
The Casualty Gap and Public Support for War	p. 94
The Casualty Gap's Influence in 2009	p. 100
Bringing the Casualty Gap into the Public Sphere	p. 103
Technical Appendix to Chapter 4	p. 104
How Local Casualties Shape Politics	p. 109
Local Casualties and Political Behavior	p. 111
A New Theory of Local Casualty Influence	p. 113
Personal Contact with Local Casualties	p. 113
Elite Cues	p. 117
The Local Media	p. 120
Conclusion	p. 123
Technical Appendix to Chapter 5	p. 124
Political Ramifications of the Vietnam Casualty Gap	p. 131
Casualties, Public Opinion, and the Vietnam War	p. 133
Local Casualty Rates and Support for the Vietnam War	p. 136
Casualties	p. 136
Demographic Control Variables	p. 137
Results and Discussion	p. 138
Should the United States Have Stayed Out of Vietnam?	p. 138
Should the United States Withdraw from Vietnam?	p. 143
The Electoral Consequences of Local Casualties	p. 146
Modeling Vote Choice	p. 147
Results and Discussion	p. 148
The Casualty Gap and the Democratic Brake on Military Adventurism	p. 153
Technical Appendix to Chapter 6	p. 155
Political Ramifications of the Iraq Casualty Gap	p. 161
Iraq, Casualties, and Public Opinion	p. 163
Knowing a Casualty and Feeling Negatively Affected Personally by the War	p. 165
Supporr for Withdrawal	p. 167
Iraq, Casualties, and Electoral Dynamics	p. 170
Varying Experience with Casualties and Electoral Choice in 2006	p. 171
State and Local Casualty Rates and Change in Republican Vote Share	p. 172
State-Level Results	p. 175
County-Level Results	p. 178
Republican Incumbent Races at the County Level	p. 179
Conclusion	p. 181
Technical Appendix to Chapter 7	p. 183
The Casualty Gap and Civic Engagement	p. 191
War and American Political and Civic Engagement	p. 193
Theoretical Expectations	p. 195
The Immediate Effects of Vietnam on Political Participation	p. 197
Results	p. 198
The Lingering Effects of Vietnam on Civic Engagement	p. 203
Results	p. 204
Korea, World War II, and Patterns of Political Engagement	p. 206
Results	p. 207
Conclusion	p. 211
Technical Appendix to Chapter 8	p. 213
The Future of the Casualty Gap	p. 226
Responding to the Casualty Gap	p. 231
Facing up to the Casualty Gap	p. 234
Notes	p. 235
References	p. 277
Index	p. 295
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