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Although Robert E. Lee was engaged in a successful military career in the U.S. Army, he tended to identify himself as a Virginian and sympathized with the interests of the slaveholding South. Regarding slavery itself, his views reflected a mixture of misgivings about the impact of slavery on whites and a belief that the institution was the best that could be done for Blacks so long as they lived in the United States. He never doubted white supremacy; he blamed abolitionists for the controversy over slavery. Once he identified his interests with those of the Confederacy, Lee looked to wage aggressive war to beat back Union battalions and weaken northern public support for the war effort.