IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MADE THE PEACE

Abstract

EQUALLY ardent democrats disagree about the extent to which public opinion should be permitted to shape the foreign policy of a democracy. But practically everyone agrees that public opinion will prove an important and, in some cases, decisive factor in determining the peace settlements.

The authors of the following article have drawn from the answers to recent opinion polls certain significant conclusions regarding American opinion on the various factors involved in planning the peace. Harry H. Field is Director, and Louise M. Van Patten, Editorial Director, of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Denver.

“In the chancellories of Britain and Russia there must be many question marks about what their future course shall be, and those question marks... essentially relate to the uncertainty of what the United States of America will do after the war.”—Senator Claude Pepper.