ABSTRACT
T here was another major factor in the Democratic leadership’s rejection of the MFDP in August 1964. In that same month, at the highest levels, some Democratic leaders already knew they were going to escalate the war in Vietnam.1 Given that the Dixiecrats were not only racist but also hawkish,2 could the Democrats have gone to war abroad if the party was turning toward civil rights and antipoverty efforts at home? At the very least, the road to war would have been more complicated.
