A new YouGov survey asked Americans what they thought of the recent U.S. decision to bomb nuclear sites in Iran, and what they think about U.S. military involvement in foreign conflicts more generally. Americans are divided on the Iran bombing, and are more likely to feel that U.S. foreign military interventions generally worsen situations rather than improve them, both in the U.S. and abroad.
38% of Americans think the U.S. decision to bomb nuclear sites in Iran was the right decision. Just as many (40%) say it was the wrong decision. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say it was the right decision (77% vs. 8%).
37% of Americans believe U.S. foreign military interventions more often worsen — rather than improve — situations in the countries where they occur. 21% think they generally improve situations and 23% say they most often neither worsen nor improve a situation.
In November 2023, a smaller share (28%) said U.S. foreign military interventions often worsen situations.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say U.S. foreign military interventions more often worsen situations (47% vs. 21%). In November 2023, when Democrat Joe Biden was in the White House, a much smaller share of Democrats (25%) and a slightly larger share of Republicans (28%) said this.
What about the effect that U.S. foreign military interventions have stateside? Only 17% of Americans think that U.S. foreign military interventions more often improve situations in the U.S. About twice as many (36%) say they generally worsen situations in the U.S. and 28% say they do neither. As is the case with the impact of U.S. military interventions abroad, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say interventions more often worsen situations in the U.S. (47% vs. 18%).
Are there situations that justify U.S. military intervention in foreign countries? At least half of Americans say intervention is always or usually justified if it is with each of the following goals: responding to acts of aggression towards the U.S. (58%), preventing terrorism (51%), and protecting U.S. allies (50%). Slightly less say it’s justified when it’s done for each of the following goals: preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction (49%), protecting and aiding local civilians (44%), and protecting U.S. access to strategic resources (35%).
Compared with November 2023, smaller shares of Democrats today believe it’s always or usually justified for the U.S. military to intervene in foreign countries with the goal of protecting U.S. access to strategic resources (23% in June 2025 vs. 39% in November 2023), preventing the spread of communism (21% vs. 36%), and promoting U.S. business interests (14% vs. 28%).
Americans are evenly divided about whether U.S. foreign military interventions in the past 50 years have been successful (38% say entirely or mostly successful) or unsuccessful (37%). Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say these interventions have been successful (52% vs. 34%).
There are two global conflicts for which the majorities of Americans agree that U.S. intervention was the right decision: World War II (71%) and World War I (58%). Fewer believe it was the right decision for the U.S. military to intervene in the Korean War (36%), the Gulf War (35%), and the Afghanistan War (28%).
The global conflicts about which Americans are least likely to say U.S. intervention was the right decision — among the dozen included in the poll — are the Cambodian campaign in 1970 (12%) and the Yemeni Civil War (13%). About half of Americans are unsure about each of these. More say the Vietnam War was the wrong decision than for any other conflict included in the poll (56%).
Americans 65 and older are much more likely than younger adults to say it was the right choice for the U.S. military to intervene in World War II (87% vs. 66%), World War I (74% vs. 54%), and the Korean War (51% vs. 32%).
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say U.S. intervention in many of these conflicts was the right decision. The biggest differences: 43% of Republicans and 16% of Democrats think it was the right decision for the U.S. military to intervene in the Invasion of Panama, during the presidency of Republican George H.W. Bush. 42% of Republicans and 16% of Democrats say the same about the Iraq War, which began during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush; 52% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats say the same about the Gulf War, which began when George H.W. Bush was president.
Democrats are less likely now than they were in 2023 to say that it was the right decision for the U.S. military to become involved in the Afghanistan War (36% said this in 2023 and 19% say this now), the Syrian Civil War (31% vs. 14%), and the Vietnam War (26% vs. 9%).
Related:
- Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be scared about the state of the world
- How Americans have reacted to Donald Trump's 2024 victory
- How Americans describe the Democratic and Republican parties
See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted June 23 - 25, 2025 among 1,075 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty
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