Dover test
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USCasualtiesC130DoverAFB.jpg
The Dover test is an informal test and a journalist phrase to describe the public reaction to returning war casualties, and if the general population of the United States is supporting the participation of the United States in a war.
General information
The Dover test was explicitly mentioned for the first time by Gen. Hugh Shelton in 1999, and again on January 19 2000 when he said:
- "...(M)ust be subjected to what I call the 'Dover test.' Is the American public prepared for the sight of our most precious resource coming home in flag-draped caskets into Dover Air Force Base in Delaware – which is a point entry for our Armed Forces?"
- If the population continues to support the war after the news coverage, then the US government has passed the Dover test, and continued warfare probably does not reduce the popularity of the government.
- If the population does not continue to support the war, then the government has failed the test, and continued warfare may reduce the popularity of the government.
The test is named after Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware in the United States. The base is home to the Department of Defense's Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs. 50,000 US casualties have arrived at this airport since 1955.
The Dover test is not a formal test, and the outcome of the test is difficult to measure. Different people may also judge the outcome differently according to their opinions. Subsequently, the test is used more often to support someone's opinion or to question government actions than to actually determine the level of public support for the war.
History
The return of US casualties created difficulties for an US government for the first time during the Vietnam War, where the public opinion changed against the war during the conflict. On December 21 1989, during the invasion of Panama, President George Herbert Walker Bush prohibited media coverage of returning casualties, apparently angered by a split screen, showing him giving a news briefing on one half of the screen, and returning caskets on the other half.
Operation Restore Hope in Mogadishu, Somalia, could be said to have failed the Dover test after the Battle of Mogadishu on October 3 1993, when the mutilated bodies of US soldiers were shown on the news. Public support quickly fell and U.S. forces were soon withdrawn.
During November 2000, the Clinton administration established a rule prohibiting any press coverage of returning US war casualties. However, this rule was rarely enforced.
During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, photos of returning war casualties were frequently shown on the news.
The Dover test was most recently mentioned by the press for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Bush administration tried to avoid the Dover test by enforcing the rule from the end of the Clinton administration, prohibiting any press coverage of returning casualties. Tami Silicio, a worker for a military contractor in Kuwait took photos of the coffins of returning casualties, which made their way to the front pages. Subsequently she and her husband got fired. Shortly thereafter another journalist from The Memory Hole (http://www.thememoryhole.org/) requested similar photos under the Freedom of Information Act, and received a number of pictures. Some photographs at the site were later identified as pictures of Space Shuttle Columbia crewmembers, not military casualties. The Bush administration was displeased about the release, and has prohibited the future release of photos to the media.
External links
- Media coverage of returning coffins (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55816-2003Oct20?language=printer)