Violence and Vietnam: a Comparison between Attitudes of Civilians and Veterans

Abstract

Based on a multidimensional concept of violence, this study introduces a questionnaire permitting the assessment of general and specific orientations toward violence, and compares responses obtained from six representative groups: middle-aged males, females, college males, females, enlisted Vietnam veterans, and serving field grade officers. Findings indicate that among the civilian groups, middle-aged males are most positive toward violence, while college females are least positive. In the enlisted veteran and officer samples, those who report heavy combat experience have the highest general violence scores. Factor analyses reveal specific attitude patterns for the different samples, with violence in the service of law and order being the major dimension of response variance. Several implications are discussed.