The Iraq War remained among the most unpopular conflicts in modern US history, with public support declining sharply over time and reaching minus 14 percentage points at the latest point in the historical comparison. However, recent polling data on the US war against Iran show that public opposition has reached an even lower level in a much shorter period.
According to comparative data from Gallup and YouGov/The Economist, net support for the war with Iran stood at minus 13 percentage points at the first recorded data point before falling to minus 32. This is even lower than the lowest level recorded for the Vietnam War, at minus 31 percentage points. In the dataset presented, the war with Iran therefore has the lowest level of net public support, below the figures recorded for previous conflicts, including the Iraq and Vietnam wars.
The comparison is based on net public support, calculated as the difference between the percentage of people who support a war and those who oppose it. Net support for World War II stood at 95 percentage points at the outset and fell to 62 by the end of the period examined. The figure for the Korean War declined from 45 to 14 percentage points, while support for the Gulf War fell from 57 to 21.
For the war in Afghanistan, net support fell from around 80 percentage points at the outset to minus one around day 4,500. Net support for the Iraq War began at 52 percentage points before dropping to minus 14 around day 2,700. In the case of the Vietnam War, the figure declined from 37 to minus 31 percentage points.
The key difference in the case of the war with Iran is the speed and scale of the decline in public support. While opposition to the Iraq and Vietnam wars grew over a period of years, net support for the war with Iran has fallen from minus 13 to minus 32 percentage points in a much shorter period.
The historical data used in the comparison are drawn from Gallup polls conducted during the periods of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. Data on the war with Iran are based on YouGov/The Economist polls conducted between March and June 2026. Polling on Afghanistan continued through February 2014, while the latest poll on the war, conducted in July 2021, also recorded net support at minus one percentage point. A chart published by Steven Semler compares the trajectories of these wars across different time periods.
The political impact of this discontent can also be examined in the US midterm elections held on November 3, 2026, in which Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress to the Democrats. Alongside economic and political factors, the result reflected dissatisfaction among some voters with Trump’s performance and the consequences of the war with Iran, which has now seen public opposition exceed the levels recorded for the Iraq and Vietnam wars.
