ABC News/Washington Post Iraq War Polls, January-February 1991 (ICPSR 9563)

Version Date: Jan 20, 2009

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Principal Investigator(s):
ABC News; The Washington Post

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09563.v2

Version V2

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Summary

This data collection consists of telephone surveys concerning the Persian Gulf war between Iraq and the allied Coalition forces. Part 1, conducted just prior to the January 15th deadline set by the United Nations Security Council for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, asked respondents if the United States should take military action, what the likelihood was that the United States would go to war, how long the war would last, and how many casualties would result. Additional questions included whether the United States should hold further talks with Iraq, whether a diplomatic solution was possible, if the United States should agree to an Arab-Israeli conference, and if respondents approved of actions taken by George Bush and Congress. Parts 2-9 were conducted after the outbreak of war. Respondents were asked if they approved or disapproved of George Bush's and Israel's handling of the situation, of the United States' having gone to war, and of American anti-war protests. They were also asked how long they thought the war would last, how many casualties would result, who would win, if enough had been done to seek a diplomatic solution, and if the United States and her allies had been right to attack Iraq. In addition, respondents were asked how they rated the job the United States military was doing, if the air war would be enough or if a ground war would be necessary, if the government was releasing enough or too much information, if Israel should strike back at Iraq for the missile attacks, if the respondent was afraid to travel or afraid of increased terrorism, if the United States was heading toward another Viet Nam, and whether moral principle or economic reality had been the motive behind American troops' being sent to the Persian Gulf. Other topics covered include the final objective of the war (driving Iraq out of Kuwait or Saddam Hussein from power), allied bombing in Baghdad and issues surrounding hits on possible military targets that would result in civilian casualties, the presence of American reporters in Iraq, talks between Iraq and the Soviet Union seeking a diplomatic solution, and a set of questions addressing possible outcomes for Saddam Hussein and the respondent's personal feelings regarding him. Background information provided includes age, race, sex, political party identification, state/region of residence, and if the respondent had friends or relatives serving in the military in the Gulf region.

Citation

ABC News, and The Washington Post. ABC News/Washington Post Iraq War Polls, January-February 1991. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-01-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09563.v2

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1991-01-13 -- 1991-02-27

Date of Collection

1991-01-13 -- 1991-02-27

Data Collection Notes

  1. The data contain blanks and alphabetic characters. Parts 3, 6, and 9 were conducted solely by ABC News.

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Sample

Households were selected by random digit dialing. Within household, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was at home at the time of the interview.

Universe

Adults aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the 48 contiguous United States.

Data Source

telephone interviews

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

1991-05-03

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:

  • ABC News, and The Washington Post. ABC News/Washington Post Iraq War Polls, January-February 1991. ICPSR09563-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-01-20. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09563.v2

2009-01-20 SAS, SPSS, and Stata setups have been added to this data collection.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 10 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

1991-05-03 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.

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Notes