1900s - The last of the age of
Western cultural dominance and pride
Tremendous wealth belongs to
the upper class of industrialist entrepreneurs –
who join the aristocracy
in possessing awesome privilege
But also there is a rising
prosperity for a rapidly growing middle class –
and a continuing poverty
for a struggling and even more rapidly expanding laboring class
Only an intense spirit of
cultural nationalism holds this deeply divided social fabric together
Yet this spirit of nationalism
will soon unleash social forces which will put national cultures
(rather than classes) in
violent conflict with each other
The focus of this conflict:
declining Ottoman power in the Balkans and E. Mediterranean
producing a power vacuum
which is drawing Austria + Russia into intense opposition
– and their respective allies
along with them
1910s - The outbreak of war finally
occurs – and draws the West into a horrible death struggle
The assassination (June 1914)
of the Austrian Archduke by a Serbian nationalist sets off events which
draw (by August) all of Europe into a “Great War” (World War I):
Germans vs. French,
English and Belgians on the “Western Front”
Germans and Austrians
vs. Russians and Serbs on the “Eastern Front”
On the Eastern Front the
better-equipped Germans and Austrians manage to push the Russians into
slow retreat while on the Western Front (Northern France + Western Belgium)
a deadly stalemate sets in – despite the murderous use of gas warfare
Two long and bloody battles
– at Verdun and the Somme River (1916) – fail to break
the deadlocked trench war
on the Western Front
America finally joins in (April
1917) over the issue with Germany of submarine warfare –
with the idea of making this
horrible war a “Crusade for Democracy”
On the Eastern Front the Russian
army – hungry and weaponless – begins to collapse
and the Tsar abdicates –
thus ending centuries of Tsarist government (early 1917)
Russian government is taken
up by a new “Constitutional Democracy” headed by Kerensky –
who makes the fateful decision
to keep Russia in the war on the side of “Democracy”
Kerensky proves no more able
to keep Russia together than the Tsar –
and the Russian soldiers
now begin to protest against the new government –
giving the Communist leader
Lenin the opportunity to come to power on the promise of
taking Russia out of the
War (late 1917) – which he does in early 1918
In early 1918 the deadlock
on the Western front begins to break under the impact of tanks, airplanes,
and both Germans (shifted from the Eastern Front) and Americans arriving
in large numbers
But the Germans are themselves
hungry and exhausted and begin to buckle under the load
The War ends (late 1918) with
an Armistice : no winners – only vengeful and exhausted
losers (though the British
+ French believe themselves somehow to be the “winners”)
Wilson attempts to negotiate
a fair end to the slaughter with an Armistice – but fails to
connect American power with
American diplomacy – and the English and French take the opportunity to
pounce upon the exhausted Germans to wreak an expensive revenge (which
merely sets the scene for a return engagement 20 years later in the form
of World War II)
1920s - The “Roaring Twenties”
are dedicated to getting on with life -- despite (or because of) the long
shadow cast over Western civilization by the mindless slaughter of the
War
This getting on with life
translates itself in the rural areas of Europe and America into a deep
desire of rural Westerners to return to the past – especially as economic
hard times set in after the War
In the cities it takes the
form of a deep desire to get on toward a better future –
a future promising vast new
wealth, more leisure, more excitement and very much more personal freedom
– and a kind of mindless regard for life summed up as “Existentialism”
In America the rural-urban
cultural divide is deepened by a cultural war over:
1) basic morality (focused
on the use of alcohol: Prohibition vs. the urban “Speakeasy”)
2) scientific or secular
Truth vs. Biblical Truth (focused on the “evolution” issue – climaxed
in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” - 1925)
In Russia this divide is
summed up in a cruel civil war between the Reds (Lenin’s Communists) -
advocating for an enforced industrialization and urbanization of the culture
and the Whites (Tsarists
and Kerenskyites more wed to Russia’s rural traditions)
Just as the Reds win this
contest, Lenin dies (1924) – leaving Communist leadership apparently in
the hands of Trotsky – though secretly Stalin begin to plot his own takeover
of the Russian Communist Party
In Italy, Mussolini and his
“Fascists” easily step into power on the promise of bringing unity and
strength to Italian political and cultural life – through the dictatorship
of the “Duce”
In Russia by the late 1920s
Stalin holds total control over the Communist Party – and over the
whole of Russian society – through a regime of terror – born of his own
personal paranoia and his desire to push the country to rapid industrialization
(at the expense of the impoverished countryside – and anyone else who would
dare oppose him)
1930s - The Great Depression levels
some of the differences in industrial class wealth and strengthens the
hand of rural/small-town traditionalism
In America the Depression seems to
start with the crash of Wall Street in late 1929 – though the
economic
causes for the crash had been building much earlier [ 1) wild / greedy
speculation on
industrial
stock – way out of proportion to the real wealth of these industries;
2) a saturation of
the market
for the new goodies, such as cars and radios, and 3) the continuing failure
of the small
farm in
America to survive economically]
In Germany, similar economic problems
offer Hitler the opportunity to bring his Nazis to power in
Germany
in 1933 – under bold promises to return Germany to greatness
Similar to Italy’s Fascism, Hitler’s
Nazi doctrine promises renewed national strength by the unifying
German
culture around the single will of the great Leader (“Fuhrer”)
In Spain this same cultural split
produces (by the mid 1930s) a cruel civil war between the supporters
of the
new Republic (Liberals, Socialists and Communists) – and the old
monarchical order
(Catholics
and Royalists), led by Franco and his “Falangists”
The Spanish civil war turns into
a test struggle between “Democracy” and “Fascism”:
one side
(Germany and Italy) supporting Franco’s traditionalist Fascism (winners)
the other
side (England, France, Russia) supporting industrial Republicanism (losers)
In Russia, Stalin’s cruel grip brings
to starvation millions of resistant peasants and small farmers (early
1930s)
and the filling up of Siberian Gulags (prison camps) with millions of middle
class workers and
intellectuals
– and finally even the officer corps of the Red Army
Meanwhile Germany’s power grows as
Hitler retakes from French control the industrial Rhine region
(1936),
forceably incorporates Austria into his Reich (1938), then Czechoslovakia
(1938 +1939)
In Asia, the Japanese military engages
in its own form of Fascism – assaulting China in accordance with
Japan’s
own need for “national strength through Empire” – which draws the anger
of America –
which for
decades has seen itself as China’s protector
In Europe, Stalin (not trusting England
and France to stop Hitler) signs a treaty with Hitler dividing up
Poland
between them and receiving part of Finland as a land-buffer to the West
Hitler (September 1939) now makes
his move to grab the Western portion of Poland which (to Hitler’s
shock)
precipitates a declaration of war against Germany by England and France
– though neither
make a
serious effort to help Poland (or Finland)
1940s - Another horrible World
War results – collapsing Germany, France, England, Italy and
Japan – bringing America
and Russia to supreme power – and mutual opposition
After no action by England and France
over the winter of 1939-1940, Hitler springs a surprise attack on
the West,
quickly
taking Denmark (April), Norway, Belgium and – much to everyone’s shock
–
France
(June)
Hitler now prepares to invade England
(summer of 1940) – but cannot defeat England’s air defenses –
and gives
up the attempt – though the bombing of England continues
Roosevelt announces America’s intention
to stay out of the war – though he quietly provides economic
and military
support for England
Failing ultimate victory in the West,
Hitler decides to make good on a long-standing promise to make
the Slavic
lands to the East a Breadbasket for Germany and Lebensraum for an expanding
Aryan
society
and culture: in the summer of 1941 he invades Russia
The Japanese, angered by American
resistance to their plans of Imperialism, decide to strike a mortal
blow on
America’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) with the intention
of forcing
America
to give in to Japanese ambitions
At the same time, the Japanese also
invade and conquer the Philippines, French Indo-China, Malaya,
Singapore
and Burma and threaten an invasion of British India
But instead of capitulating, America
declares war on Japan – and begins the slow counter- offensive
against
the Japanese in the central and south Pacific
Slowly America, England and Russia
(now an American ally) force Hitler, and his ally Mussolini, into
retreat
– and America and England push Japan back in Asia and the Pacific
In 1945 both Germany and Japan are
brought to defeat and Germany to collapse
But France and England suffer from
major war weariness after the War (1945 on)
The only victors still standing in
any strength are America and Russia, who now face each other in
deep distrust
– producing a “Cold War” between them
In stark contrast to the war-destroyed
societies of Europe, America emerges from the war with its economy roaring
(Europeans were buying American goods to rebuild their own countries),
wealth spreading to even the working classes, and a new sense of personal
and national empowerment
In 1947 the Labour government
surrenders English control over South Asia (India/Pakistan)
and in 1948 backs out of
the Middle East – to let the Jews and Arabs sort out Palestine
Russia takes control of
“buffer state” governments of Eastern Europe – placing Stalinists in control
(1947-1948) – and tries to force America out of a blockaded Berlin
(1948-1949)
America shores up the Western
democracies against Russian-directed Communism with the Truman Doctrine
(1946), promising American military assistance for governments fighting
(Communist) insurgents; the Marshall Plan (1948), offering economic assistance
to war-torn countries in (Western) Europe; and NATO (1949), a military
alliance (with France, England, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxemburg, and Canada) formed against (Russian-Soviet) aggression
In 1949 America stands by
dumbfoundedly as Communists take over China (which Americans had fought
so hard for to deliver from Japanese tyranny). Chiang and his supporters
flee to the island of Taiwan where they set up a dictatorship over the
Taiwanese. The US recognizes Chiang’s government as the “true” government
of China and tries to force the international isolation of the mainland
Communist government
In 1949 the Soviets explode
their own atomic bomb – and American attitudes about the
bomb go directly from happy
confidence to terrible fear as they realize that atomic weapons
can now be used on them
1950s - The Soviet-American Cold-War
deepens - and an unaligned “Third World” emerges
Without warning Communist
North Korean invades “democratic” South Korea (1950)
– and Truman responds with
American military assistance to South Korea
– but US Gen. MacArthur announces
an idea of expanding the war (atomically) to free China from Communism
– infuriating Truman (who fires him) – drawing the Chinese in on
the side of North Korea – which throws the American troops back to
the 38th parallel – and a bloody stalemate (ending in an uneasy Armistice
in 1953)
In the early 1950s the Korean
War, fear of the atomic bomb, plus stories about Communist spies and sympathizers
everywhere within America itself (who supposedly helped the Soviets get
their bomb), stir an even deeper fear of a Communist move to destroy America
Senator Joe McCarthy directs
these fears into a witch hunt of virtually every American institution –
including even the Army – terrorizing those around him into silence (even
President Eisenhower) by accusing anyone who would dare rise up to criticize
him to be secretly a Communist – or at least an unwitting stooge of Communists.
Finally in 1953 his arrogance and stupidity before TV cameras led to his
own demise – ending the “McCarthy Era” – though not the on-going fear of
a Communist takeover of America
American children, the Boomers,
are educated to “challenge all authority” as intellectual
immunization against
any future ambitions of the Communists to take over America
Stalin suddenly dies in 1953
– and in the resultant power struggle Khrushchev eventually
rises to the top of the Communist
Party; the question arises: what will the post-Stalinist Soviet government
be like? Just as repressive – or more open?
In mid-1953 workers in East
Berlin go on strike against their Communist leaders – but the revolt is
finally crushed by Soviet tanks. But things free up a bit in Germany
for several years after the revolt
In 1954 the heart of the
French army in Vietnam is defeated at Dienbienphu by Ho Chi Minh’s Communist
guerrillas and the French leave the region after over a century of colonial
rule. According the French-Vietnamese Armistice signed in Geneva,
Vietnam is divided temporarily North-South along the 17th parallel
– pending elections to be held in the whole country in 1956. However
Ho Chi Minh is clearly the one most likely to win such an election, and
in 1955 (with considerable US complicity) Ngo Dinh Diem takes over the
Southern part of the country, declares the South an independent state,
establishes himself as dictator – and prevents the holding of the
1956 elections in the South.
In 1955 leaders from 29 Asian
and African states meet in Bandung, Indonesia, to chart out a diplomatic
course for their countries as neutrals or nations “non-aligned” to either
Russia or America in their Cold War. Thus the concept of the “Third
World” is born. Interestingly, Communist China is one of the countries
participating, presenting itself as belonging to the Third World rather
than the Russian Soviet orbit. (Equally interestingly, American Secretary
of State Dulles’ Idealism – with his Black-White view on world politics
– fails to pick up on the diplomatic possibilities of this event – and
instead condemns “non-alignment” in the Cold War as immoral and unforgivable.)
In late 1956 students go
on strike in Hungary – encouraged in part by Khrushchev’s announcement
of a new look to Communism – and in part by Dulles’ vow that America stands
ready to help the subject peoples of the Soviet bloc throw off their oppressors.
But in the end America does nothing – and Khrushchev sends in tanks to
end the uprising.
In the midst of the Hungarian
uprising, the Suez Crisis erupts – much to the pleasure of Russia and the
intense displeasure of America. Americans and Russians stand together
in halting the French, British and Israeli invasion of Nasser’s Egypt (he
had seized – or “nationalized” – the Suez Canal to pay for his Aswan Dam
project).
In 1957 the Soviets launch
into orbit the first satellite (Sputnik I) – indicating that the Soviets
possess the means to deliver virtually unstoppable nuclear weapons – a
fact that Americans note with horror. In the fall of 1957 the Soviets
launch Sputnik II with a dog aboard – intensifying the American horror
– and shame at having fallen behind in the technological race with the
Soviets. In 1958 Eisenhower creates NASA and the race is on full
speed.
In 1958 Nasser creates the
United Arab Republic – a joining of Egypt and Syria into a single Arab
state – as the core around which an Arab socialist-nationalist state is
intended eventually to unite all Arabs. Although this stirs the hearts
of the common Arab – it chills the hearts of other Arab leaders.
Eventually the UAR breaks up – but leaves behind it an intense spirit of
Arab secular-nationalist pride (Arab secular nationalism views traditional
Islam and “Islamists” with deep suspicion – as the cause of Arab
backwardness and weakness – a hindrance to Arab progress).
The removal of Israel as a “cancer” growing in the heart of the Arab world
becomes the major agenda item of Arab nationalism.
In 1958 De Gaulle is called
out of retirement and sets up a new French government (the 5th Republic)
in the face of a widening civil war between those calling for the creation
of an Arab Algeria (FLN) and those desiring a continuing French Algeria
(OAS).
In 1958 China undertakes
a “Great Leap Forward” dreamed up by Communist leader Mao Zedong.
At first mildly successful, this effort to propagandize the Chinese into
an exhaustive effort to catch up industrially and agriculturally with the
West soon throws the country into confusion – and starvation (20 million
Chinese died in the period 1959-1962)
In early 1959 Cuban guerrilla
leader Castro overthrows the corrupt and cruel 25-year Batista dictatorship
to the cheers of the Cubans – and much of the world, including Americans.
But when he begins to nationalize Cuba’s industries (heavily American-owned)
and inviting Soviet purchases of Cuban sugar, America and Castro clash.
In 1960 Eisenhower declares an embargo on Cuban sugar (the mainstay of
the Cuban economy) and begins plotting Castro’s overthrow by a CIA-trained
Cuban “liberation” army.
Meanwhile America continues
to press its case to the world for cultural leadership – on the basis of
the ability of its “Christian-Capitalist-Democracy” system to deliver material
blessings for the average worker. In his visit to Moscow in 1959,
Vice-President Nixon makes this point clear to Khrushchev in the “Kitchen
Debate”
Nonetheless an American Rock
‘n Roll youth generation is more absorbed with music and acne than world
events
1960s - Political Liberalism and
youthful idealism create a turbulent decade
A youthful John Kennedy (JFK)
takes office in January of 1961, challenging Americans to win the Cold
War through the power of American idealism
The Peace Corps is thus created
to help bring the world into the orbit of American Idealism
But he is in office only
a few months (April) when his idealism is challenged by the planned invasion
of Cuba by the CIA – something inherited from the Eisenhower Administration.
He balks at using American air power to support the invasion, condemning
the venture to certain failure – and condemning himself (in the eyes of
the Soviets) to appearing irresolute and weak
That same August (1961),
in order to stem the flow of talent fleeing to West Berlin from Communist
East Berlin – and to test the resolve of Kennedy – Khrushchev suddenly
has an impenetrable wall built around West Berlin. Kennedy – despite
the pleas of the West Germans – does nothing to stop its construction.
Emboldened by Kennedy’s apparent
weakness, Khrushchev decides the next summer (1962) to position nuclear-tipped
rockets in Cuba, a move designed to stalemate America militarily.
In October Americans detect the project in progress and threaten nuclear
attack if they are not immediately removed. This time Khrushchev
backs down – beginning his own slide from power in the USSR. (1964).
One of Kennedy’s deep hopes
is to improve the shameful way Blacks are treated in America. The newspapers
and TV images of Blacks in Birmingham, Alabama, (summer of 1963) being
blasted by fire hoses and set upon by police dogs simply for protesting
the lack of freedoms that other Americans take for granted, shocks most
Americans. Kennedy supports voter registration of Blacks in the South,
the march on Washington led by Dr. King (August 1963), and other Black
causes – but can get no meaningful legislation passed in Congress
because of the opposition of Southern politicians.
The early 1960s marks the
period in which America takes a strong turn away from its Christian roots
– into secularism. The Liberal Warren Supreme Court outlaws teacher-led
prayers in public schools (1962), the reading of Bible verses over a public
school intercom (1963) and required Bible-study and prayer in the public
schools (1963) – claiming that these activities violate the “wall of separation”
between Church and State [actually the “wall” was originally intended to
keep the Federal Government out of the religious life of state and local
communities]. Christianity is now on its way to being restricted
to a “private” ghetto – and is supposed to stay out of America’s “public”
life.
With things turning more
chaotic in Vietnam (Buddhists are burning themselves in protest against
the dictatorial rule of the American-backed, French-Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem),
and embarrassed that the US should have such an un-idealistic ally, Kennedy
gives the go-ahead for Diem’s removal in a military coup in November of
1963. Diem is killed – but the country merely plunges deeper into
chaos.
Later that same month (November
1963), in a visit to Texas, Kennedy is shot and killed. His Vice
President, Lyndon Johnson (LBJ), becomes President. America (and
the world) is stunned.
Under Johnson, the power
of the federal Government to take charge of America’s ever-expanding “public”
life and reshape the nation and its culture according to some grand human
design (he called it “The Great Society”) expands tremendously. The
bureaucracy in Washington explodes in size – as does the national debt
– to put all of Johnson’s plans into effect. Unofficially America
is moving to have its motto changed from “In God We Trust” to “In Washington,
D.C. We Trust.”
Johnson uses his considerable
power over Congress (he was Democratic leader in the Senate for years)
to finally move even southern politicians to get in line with the redesigning
of his perfect America through civil rights initiatives for the Blacks
– in particular the Civil Rights act of 1965 which guarantees Blacks voters
rights in all 50 states.
And he decides (not exactly
letting the American public on to his decision) with the same sense of
dispatch to take care of the pesky Vietnam problem once and for all – by
sending in a conventional US military force to clear Vietnam of Communist
guerrillas. But he finds that conventional action against guerrillas
is not as straightforward a solution as he had supposed. He responds
by sending in more troops, and more troops until their number in Vietnam
reaches a half a million. Despite words of encouragement from the
top military brass, the situation looks largely unchanged: the Viet Cong
are not in retreat anywhere.
Much to the shock of Yankee
America, progress in civil rights does not produce a new picture of racial
harmony in America – but quite the contrary. Black impatience with the
slow wheels of government in bringing about true (that is, material) equality
for Blacks turns into a hostile anti-White attitude – begins to take the
form of summertime burning of sections of major American cities (Los Angeles
– 1965; Newark and Detroit – 1967). Rather than put discipline and
manageable restraint on the new cultural changes going on in the country,
Liberals (and their young idealistic followers) – and younger Black leaders
– excuse and even laud these events as the just fruits from the hypocrisy
of the comfortable (and conservative) White “Establishment.”
The failure of the huge military
effort to dislodge Communism from Vietnam transforms itself into a mood
of protest among American youth over required service in Vietnam (the military
draft) and a growing anger at the unresponsiveness of the “Establishment”
to this mood.
Battle lines begin to draw
up as the Boomers, long educated to resist heroically political “tyranny,”
see the issue not as driving Communism from Asia but as driving the Establishment
from power in America. And what is this “Establishment”? Almost
everything the parents of the Boomer youth hold dear: the U.S. Government
(puts power particularly in the hands of the Military), Capitalism (rewards
the rich at the expense of the poor) – and even Mainline Christianity (with
a self-righteous and protective attitude toward the real Evil in the world:
the “Establishment”). The Boomer strike back at their “Establishment” parents
with a revolution in psychedelic music, Eastern mysticism, recreational
drugs and unrestricted sex
At the same time the institution
most sacred to Americans, the family, comes under attack. It begins
in the 1950s with Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd, in which he criticizes the
conformity of the American culture, especially the conformity of the American
male who is getting to be viewed as being little more than a worker ant
dressed in a grey flannel suit. In 1963 Friedan’s Feminine Mystique
takes the argument into the American home, claiming that the life of the
American housewife is little more than a pampered servitude which she should
be freed from in order to discover her greater self. The age of the
“self” (or “me-generation”) over and above the self-sacrificing family
man and woman is being born.
In 1968 all these contending
forces converge on the country in a devastating way.
The “Tet Offensive”
(January-February)of the Viet Cong into the heart of the “secured” areas
of Vietnam (including the capital Saigon) stirs a deep resentment among
many Americans against the military for having lied about the U.S. being
on a winning course in the war in Vietnam
Smarting from the Black
reaction to his reforms, feeling that he has been lied to by his own military
advisors, upset by the hatred American youth feel for him (their constant
chant: “Hey, hey, LBJ; how many kids did you kill today?”), Johnson
announces (March) that he will retire from the Presidency rather than run
for reelection in the fall.
The assassination of
ML King (April) sets off widespread Black burning and looting in America
– and the rise of new Black voices (the Black Panthers) calling not for
more civil rights reforms but Black power against the White Establishment.
Bobby Kennedy, the
political hope of the discontented Boomers and the probable pick of the
Democratic Party for President in the up-coming election, is also assassinated
(June)
The Democratic National
Convention (August) is upstaged by a battle between rioting Yippies and
rioting Chicago police just outside the Convention Center – a most visible
sign of the crumbling sense of social order that permeates American culture.
Nixon – a strong Establishment
figure – is elected President in November in the hope that he can restore
some sense of order and “decency” to the country – pushing the Boomer (whose
views move in the opposite direction) into a deeper anti-Establishment,
even anti-patriotic, reaction
In part 1969 marks a small
shift in American life – with the first major event in a long time which
America could actually celebrate: the landing (July) of American astronauts
on the moon – a massive symbolic achievement in an otherwise dreary time.
But American youth gather
(August 1969) with their own idea of how to celebrate: a massive rock-concert
/ love-in in the low mountains of New York State at Woodstock – where for
3 days 400,000+ Boomer youth indulge in the pleasures of youthful
freedom.
The rest of the world is fairly
quiet during the 1960s (there are notable exceptions):
Western Europe is finally
making a fast recovery economically thanks to the readiness to work together
as a single unit through the European Common Market (later to become known
as the European Union)
Russia, under the leadership
of Brezhnev (after 1964), is preoccupied with its own economic development
and does not “meddle” in political hot-spots – including Vietnam, an event
the Russians stay away from.
Africa in the 1960s sees
European colonialism come to an end – mostly peacefully – except in South
Africa where the 300-year old Dutch Afrikaner community fights ruthlessly
to keep its place at the head of a country where Blacks, Coloureds, Indians
and even Englishmen are jockeying for their own political place in the
life of the country
The Middle East continues
down the road of developing Arab Nationalism under the guidance of Egyptian
President Nasser -- who however blunders grandly in 1967 when he and Arab
allies decide to remove the “Zionist cancer” of Israel from their midst.
His rumblings of war are met instead by a surprise strike of the Israeli
air force which destroys his own air force on the ground -- and from there
his defeat, and the defeat of Jordan and Syria who foolishly come in at
this point, becomes a certain thing. As a result the Arab Palestinians
lose all their ancestral land to the Israelis – though the rest of the
world (including even the US) refuse to recognize Israel’s new territorial
acquisitions.
In China, Mao (who has been
chastened by his Communist colleagues for the failures of his “Great Leap
forward in 1958-1961) tries to make a comeback with another political extravaganza:
his “Cultural Revolution” (1966-1968) in which he appeals to China’s youth
– over the heads of their elders and even the Communist political organization
– to rise up together as a new “Red Guard”and purge the land of “revisionist”
thinking and (under his own guidance) set the country on a truly revolutionary
course once again.
The result is a total breakdown
of social order – which after nearly devastating the country (and killing
over 400,000 people) is brought back under order by the Red Army.
The surviving “pragmatists” in the Chinese Communist Party now force Mao
to be merely a “reigning” rather than ruling national figure – away from
the day-to-day decisions needed to return the country to economic growth.
The example of American youth
rising up in rebellion against their adult Establishments spreads to the
youth of other countries: Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium. Governments
topple and political chaos reigns for weeks in many countries. In
France, De Gaulle tries to tighten up on French politics as a result of
these“events of May” – but the move backfires on him and in 1969 he once
again stalks off into retirement, hoping to collapse the 5th Republic with
his departure (in fact it survives his going quite nicely)
In Czechoslovakia a reform
group within the ruling Communist Party begins to permit more political
freedom in the country (the “Prague Spring”). But the Russians see
these changes as a dangerous virus which might spread to the rest of the
Soviet Block. In August 650,000 Soviets troops are sent into Czechoslovakia
to crush the reform movement.
1970s - Confusion, vindictiveness
and dangerous foolishness overtake America
Nixon has learned the art
of diplomatic Realpolitik (Political Realism) in his 8 years out of office,
traveling and visiting with different foreign government leaders.
He is the most diplomatically informed of all American presidents upon
his arrival to the White House – and it shows in his choice of National
Security Advisor (and eventually Secretary of State) Kissinger. Nixon
is not confused by the ideological title “Communist” attached to the Russians,
Chinese and Vietnamese, knowing that they are three quite different (and
often quite hostile) countries. He plans to exploit these differences
to correct America’s poor foreign relations (thanks to Vietnam) with the
larger world.
In early 1970s Nixon decides
to wield a stick against North Vietnam in order to strengthen the American
diplomatic hand at the meetings being held in Paris to work out the future
of Vietnam. In late April he sends US troops into Cambodia to cut
off North Vietnamese supplies to the Viet Cong along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
This widening of the war
sets off the fury of the militantly anti-war Boomers – resulting in a deadly
showdown between the students and Ohio National Guardsmen sent to the Kent
State University campus to put down student riots on the campus.
When 4 students are killed by jittery National Guardsmen the nation divides
into two hostile camps, one saying “good riddance to student traitors”
and others saying “this is another sign of the total depravity of the tyrannical
American Establishment.” The “Kent State Massacre” clearly marks
out the generational battle lines between the Anti-war Boomers and the
older generation of World War Two “Vets” (especially the “hard hat”working-class
Vets).
But strangely Kent State
throws ice on a lot of the student anti-war activism. Things
settle down a bit as cynical Boomers back away from their great idealistic
crusades – and turn their focus onto themselves, ready now to “do their
own thing.” Boomers now abandon their political idealism – to perfect
the personal hedonism of the “Me-Generation.”
Stories and pictures flowing
back from Vietnam are beginning to turn even the patriotic Vets against
the war, pictures of the civilian population being caught in the crossfires
of the war
– especially the horrible
story of the My Lai village where US soldiers went on a killing rage, slaughtering
the whole village: men, women, children and even babies.
Meanwhile Nixon begins his
withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. By March of 1972 he has only
6,000 US troops in Vietnam.
Nixon moves to end the diplomatic
isolation of Communist or mainland China and use new relations with China
to help stabilize his policy of “Vietnamizing” the conflict in Vietnam
(turning the war over to South Vietnamese regular troops). Thus he
sends Kissinger on a secret diplomatic mission to China in 1971 and then
himself travels to China in 1972 to open lines of communication with Beijing.
He also decides that it is
time to defuse the Cold War with Russia of its nuclear overtones and work
with the Soviets in bringing some kind of cooperative restraint to the
arms race (a d?tente as it was called – or a “backing-down”) Improved
relations with Russia will keep the Chinese on their toes, just as improved
relations with China will keep the Russian on their toes – and as improved
relations with both China and Russia will keep North Vietnam on its toes!
But with respect to domestic
US politics (which Nixon dislikes and turns over to several special White
House assistants) Nixon proves to be highly incompetent. Though the
voters give him an overwhelming victory in the 1972 Presidential election,
the American press in general (which still holds aloft the “power is evil”
crusading spirit of the 1960s Liberals and Boomers) despises him; a largely
Democratic Congress opposes him, and a very Liberal Federal judiciary ignores
him and sets up its own agenda to reshape American society and culture.
By not facing up to the political challenges of these domestic power groups,
Nixon lets a small, but politically powerful Liberal sub-culture form against
him.
An incident during the summer
1972 presidential campaign – the break-in into the Watergate offices of
the Democratic National Committee by enthusiastic political lieutenants
– gives his opponents their chance to destroy him. The issue blows
up when two young reporters of the Washington Post follow up on the story
– hoping to follow a trail of intrigue that would lead to a prize-winning
story. As the story comes out of “high-up” officials being behind the break-in,
Nixon “circles the wagons” to protect his staff. Thus though there
is no direct connection between Nixon and the Watergate break-in, his move
to protect his staff with a “cover-up” is a serious matter. In the
end, proof is brought forward that the Supreme Enforcer of the law of the
land had broken the law himself in the cover-up effort, probably an impeachable
offense. Nixon, not willing to see what a hostile House of Representatives
might do in an impeachment hearing, chooses to resign (August 1974) rather
than go through the process.
Vice President Gerald Ford
now becomes President – but possesses no power to lead the nation – as
the Liberal Press, Congress and Judiciary do not intend to give up their
status of “defenders of democracy” against “presidential tyranny.”
Swelled with a sense of the
importance of a new “power is evil” Liberal Idealism, Congress announces
that it will no longer give financial assistance to the Saigon government
in Vietnam – the one established by “tyranny” (that is, American power).
With this clear go-ahead signal to America’s former enemy, the Vietnamese
Communists, the political situation which has been fairly stable in Vietnam
for three years, collapses suddenly and tragically in April of 1975.
The world stands by in awe as the American political legacy in Vietnam
(bought with so much American blood) simply vanishes through the high moral
intentions of America’s “new democracy.”
This is not the only legacy
being collapsed by the new “defenders of democracy.” In the early
1970s the Supreme Court (Walz v. Tax Commission - 1970 and Lemon v. Kurtzman
-1971) orders the total banishment of Christianity from its long-held axial
position at the heart of the public culture and turns that position over
to “secularism.” In a clever twist of language, the separation
of church and state (which is actually not the original wording of the
Constitution) is reinterpreted as the separation of public and private,
with the state getting the public portion of American life and religion
being assigned to some kind of non-public or private world. Religion
(usually meaning Christianity) can no longer be practiced in America’s
public life. Secularism (which is actually itself a religion) is
now the only allowable standard of Truth in the public domain. Thus do
the “defenders of democracy” overturn the 1st Amendment which expressly
forbids Federal authority from either authorizing or preventing the free
practice of religion in America (or free speech, or a free press, or free
assemblies of people).
1976 is the year of America’s
celebration of 200 years of its existence as a free democracy – the year
of the Bicentennial. But it is a whimpering, pathetic celebration.
The small group of Americans that do come out to celebrate their patriotic
loyalties sense that something is wrong with America. Crime and drugs
are spreading through American society like a fast-moving cancer and nothing
seems to be able to slow it down, much less stop it. There is an
outbreak of divorce never seen before in our society – or any other – that
is throwing the family foundations of America into turmoil. Public
civility and politeness have been replaced by a “me and my rights” spirit
of belligerence setting American against American not only publicly but
also privately.
A very popular TV sitcom
program which runs throughout the 1970s, All in the Family, epitomizes
this very spirit. Instead of the family being depicted as the one
place where healthy life has its greatest guarantee, the family is ridiculed
as the springboard of a wide range of social disfunctions. The father
is a patriotic bigot, the mother is a husband-dominated mouse, and the
high-spirited 20-something children are ultimately the true defenders of
what is right and wrong. In the eyes of many this is what America
is now all about.
But a countering vision of
America comes in through a very low-budget film Rocky, which grabs the
imagination of a fed-up America desirous of a return to the old simplicities:
White male come-back victory and a love between the hero and an old-fashioned
girl (not a shrill feminist). Many Americans are grasping emotionally
for something solid to hold onto.
1976 is also a presidential-election
year – and a very unknown former one-term governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter,
has been put forth by a small New York political association, the Foreign
Policy Institute, to run as the Democratic candidate against the Republican
Gerald Ford. A taste of what is to come is when, during a series
of televised debates, Carter attacks Ford (and his Secretary of State Kissinger)
for practicing immoral politics which “link” diplomacy with political payoffs
rather than high moral ideals. Carter is playing the “power is evil”
card as the main feature of his political campaign. He promises to
end American “imperialism” and to pull the country’s support away from
foreign leaders who use immoral means to undergird their power. He
cites specifically the Shah of Iran who is known to put people in prison
merely for their political affiliations. Indeed, unlike the previous
Republican administrations (Nixon and Ford) – under his Presidency, America
will be restored to a morally clean agenda.
Carter is elected President
– and the world stands in amazement as he attempts to put his “power is
evil” philosophy into effect. He proposes to end American “imperialism”
in Europe by bringing home the American troops in Europe (part of the anti-Soviet
NATO command) – until panicked European leaders convince Carter that this
would destabilize the very political structure that has brought peace to
Europe for over 30 years (even the Soviets are not keen on this because
it would destabilize the whole of Europe, their zone of domination as well!).
When he similarly proposes to liberate South Korea by bringing home the
American troops positioned there since 1950 the reaction is even louder:
everyone knows that the very day after the departure of such troops North
Korea would be invading the South again. Carter backs down.
He’s beginning slowly to understand about the key role of power in shaping
world peace.
But for the situation in
Iran, the lessons have come too late. Having spoken loudly and clearly
about his views on the Shah, Carter has helped galvanize Iranian opinion
that their Shah is an evil man. Actually he is merely a foolish man.
The huge flow of new oil money gushing into Iran has succeeded in destabilizing
Iranian society by creating a huge, ugly gap in wealth between the small
group of families around the Shah who have reaped most of the oil gains
and the larger still very rural population which has not shared in the
wealth – and in fact has watched their real wealth disappear under
the inflation of prices for even basic necessities, prices they cannot
afford to pay. The Shah, once well loved by his people for the very
obvious material progress he was bringing the country, is now being resented
for the way he has allowed this huge gap in wealth to come into being in
his own country. The Islamic clerics, who were once scorned as lingering
symbols of Iran’s former backwardness as a feudal Muslim society, now begin
to be listened to as they give religious judgments on the hard economic
times in Iran. Under their guidance (and with Carter’s own help)
the Shah is named as the cause of all evil in their lives. “The only
hope for Iran is the removal of this Evil – and the restoration of the
country to the holy ways of traditional Islam.” The Iranians start
to listen attentively to the clerics.
It takes Carter a long time
to come to realize that what is going on in Iran is truly a battle between
modern Western civilization and a hostile traditional Muslim civilization.
The Shah needs help – counsel in straightening out the growing economic
mess in Iran – rather than diplomatic isolation by the once biggest supporter
of his modernization reforms. But it is too late. Under the
guidance of the Ayatollah Khomeini, a street revolution is organizing against
the Shah, and the belated efforts of Carter to come to the Shah’s aid only
makes clearer another part of the clerics’ message: behind the Evil of
the Shah stands the greatest Evil of all, America. When the Shah
is driven from power in February of 1979 the Ayatollah turns Iran to its
next struggle: the destruction of the Great Satan, America.
Throughout the year Iran
grows more restless in its readiness to do battle with the great Satan
America. Then when Carter offers shelter (in Egypt) to a very sick
Shah, the Iranians grow angry. In November a crowd storms the American
Embassy and grabs all the American staff members – in fact all Americans
living and working in Iran. Americans watch from their TVs in horror
as the Iranians parade bound and blindfolded Americans before the screaming
Iranian mobs. This vision touches the deep sense of helplessness
that Americans are beginning to feel in the face of changes going on rapidly
in their world.
This is in part due to the
fact that in late 1979, for the second time in the decade, Americans are
having to form very long lines at the gas stations to get scarce gasoline
whose cost is skyrocketing to ever new heights. Higher energy costs
are in turn pushing ever-higher prices for everything Americans are paying
for. Inflation is running rampant.
At this point Federal Reserve
Board Chairman Volcker decides to “fight” inflation with even higher financial
interest rates – which of course merely adds even more cost to the production
of American goods and services. What in fact happens is that businesses
cannot continue to find profits operating under such a burden of costs
– and they begin to fold. Thus accompanying inflation is a huge downturn
in the American economy: an unexpected development termed “stagflation”
(inflation accompanied by economic stagnation).
In the meantime, in the larger
world beyond America, peace and growth – even if slow at times – is the
norm in the 70s. This is particularly the case in Western Europe
where the old nations have pooled their economic resources to create a
growing European Economic Community (to eventually become the European
Community – and then the European
Union). With De Gaulle
gone from the scene, French hostility to the joining of England to the
Community ends and England, along with Ireland and Denmark, join the EEC
(1973).
An exception to this picture
of peace is Northern Ireland – part of the British Kingdom. By 1972
Catholic-Protestant animosities in Northern Ireland (which first flared
up in 1969 over economic hard times) turned into a bloody conflict when
British soldiers fired on Catholic protesters, killing 12. The fiercely
Catholic Irish Republican Army - IRA (largely quiet since Irish independence
from Britain after World War One) comes back to life as a terrorist organization
aiming to force the ceding of (largely Protestant) Northern Ireland (the
Ulster Province) to the (largely Catholic) Irish Republic. Britain
fights back at the IRA – and the battle continues its violent course throughout
the rest of the 1970s..
In the Middle East, Nasser
dies (1970s) shortly after dedicating the Aswan High Dam on the Nile, and
his Vice President and long-time friend Anwar al-Sadat replaces him as
president of Egypt. In 1972 Sadat expels 15,000 Soviet military technicians
from Egypt (they had become overbearing as advisors) – yet is very willing
to receive new Soviet military aid.
In October of 1973 Egypt
and Syria suddenly attack Israel in an effort to unstick earlier efforts
to get Israel to return Arab lands lost in 1967. Initially the war
moves to the Arabs’ favor – but Israel regroups and regains lost ground
– and more. But at this point Israel and the Arabs both deplete their
military arsenal – and the Soviets and Americans move into the conflict
to resupply their respective allies with replacement airplanes, tanks,
etc. Then the largely Arab OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries) imposes an oil embargo on America and the West. Fearing
an escalation of the conflict into a collapse of Soviet-American d?tente
– and feeling the pinch of a horrible energy crisis – America (through
Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy”) negotiates an Arab-Israeli cease-fire
and an Israeli move toward granting some of the territorial concessions
the Arabs had originally been seeking (spring of 1974).
In 1975 the 36-year old fascist
regime in Spain comes to an end when Franco dies. Young King Juan
Carlos begins to move Spain carefully toward cultural freedom and democracy
– and in 1977 the country has its first truly democratic election (even
the Communists were allowed to participate). But in 1981 disgruntled
former fascist military officers stage a coup to return the country to
Franco’s ways. But the King stands firm in his support of the
democracy -- and the coup withers. Europe is so impressed by the
King’s stand that Spain is invited to join NATO. From this point
on Spain begins an unbroken period of strong economic growth and entry
into the mainstream of European culture.
In 1976 both the zany Mao
Zedong and his more practical ally Zhou Enlai die – and a power struggle
erupts between Mao’s radical widow Jiang Qing (leader of the “Gang of four”)
and the leaders of the Chinese “pragmatists,” Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping.
By 1977 Jiang is in prison and Deng is in charge of China (Hua has been
eased to the sidelines of power). This marks the beginning of China’s
shift away from doctrinaire Maoism toward economic pragmatism (allowing
limited capitalism into China and new trade relations with the Western
world)
While China is veering away
from doctrinaire politics the tiny country of Cambodia is plunging into
a bloodbath centered on ideological doctrine. Following the collapse
in 1975 of the pro-American South Vietnamese government next door, the
Communist Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot seize power in Cambodia, close the
country to the outside world, and – inspired by Mao’s radicalism – begin
a campaign of eradicating “capitalist, bourgeois” culture from the country.
Merchants, professionals, teachers, any educated Cambodians, are moved
to the countryside for ideological reindoctrination as “working class Cambodians.”
The program becomes increasingly brutal as hundreds of thousands of class
(and ethnic) “enemies” are liquidated. But Pol Pot’s alignment with
China proves to be the undoing of his Khmer Rouge. Vietnam, though
Communist, is deeply hostile to China’s influence in the region and decides
in December of 1978 to invade Cambodia – and install a pro-Vietnam government
there. This is when the rumors of the mass genocide by the Khmer
Rouge come to light. Eventually it is revealed that possibly a million
Cambodians died in the “Killing Fields” during the Khmer Rouge ascendency.
In 1977 Sadat surprises the
world by flying to Jerusalem and meeting with Menachem Begin to broker
a new peace accord between Egypt and Israel. Carter then jumps into
the initiative when it begins to stall up and brings both Sadat and Begin
to America (1978) to work out their differences. The “Camp David
Accords” formally end Israeli-Egyptian hostilities – and begin Sadat’s
troubles with the Arab hardliners in the larger Arab world and in his own
country. He and Begin are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.
But Begin does not hold up his part of the bargain concerning self-government
for the Palestinians – and the Arab League kicks Sadat out for transacting
a “separate peace” with Israel. Things grow worse for Sadat – especially
as Begin ignores the Camp David Accords and institutes new Jewish settlements
in what the rest of the world (including America) understands as Palestinian
lands. The Arabs grow increasingly furious with Sadat’s sell-out
and in October 1981 he is assassinated by Muslim fundamentalists.
His successor, Hosni Mubarak promises nonetheless to continue to work toward
the implementation of the Camp David Accords.
1980s - The “Regan Era” marks
a decade of a return to more traditional values in America
By 1980 Americans are in a
bitter, depressed mood. Carter is coming up for reelection and is in a
quandary as to what to do.
In April he attempts a foolhardy
military rescue of Americans held hostage in Iran (his Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance was opposed to the mission and resigns when it fails) – which
ends in failure in the desert sands of southern Iran with the loss thankfully
of only a handful of lives (“thankfully” because had the effort reached
Tehran, the hostages most likely have been butchered, along with their
rescuers, and the American humiliation would have been all the greater).
As a result, Carter, who
has finally learned “linkage” politics, begins to negotiate with Iran in
secret for the release of the American hostages, holding over the Iranians
the much needed financial assets frozen in US banks – at a time when Iran
is fighting to fend off an Iraq attack (begun in September ) and needs
those assets badly. The negotiations result finally in the release
of the American hostages – but too late for Carter to get the credit.
Meanwhile Carter convinces
Volcker to back off his high interest rate strategy – and the economy begins
to rebound, long enough for Carter to be renominated by the Democrats as
their presidential candidate. But Volcker immediately sends the rates
back up again and the economy slumps back into recession – in time for
the November elections. Carter is not reelected President.
In January 1981 former actor,
former California governor, Ronald Reagan, takes office with a clear agenda
to return America to its former, stronger, traditional ways. The
Liberal “saviors of democracy” do not like this and see in Reagan a return
to the White House of “Nixon” in a new guise. But Reagan knows how to handle
the American press (unlike Nixon) and though returning to the type of foreign
policy Nixon exercised, Reagan knows how to handle domestic politics as
well. It is highly symbolic of a restored sense of American strength
and resolve that at the very moment Reagan is being sworn into office,
the American hostages have been finally released and are in airplanes on
their way home to America.
In March, two months into
office, Reagan is shot in the chest by a deranged young man; he recovers
quickly – but press secretary Brady, also shot, is permanently brain damaged.
The shock of this event inspires Congress to pass America’s first (still
quite limited) gun control law – known as the Brady Law.
Reagan immediately demonstrates
that the Presidency intends to move forward on the basis of strength –
and not just merely good moral intentions. He immediately confronts
labor unions – who have been helping drive inflation along with their constant
round of wage increases for their members (leaving non-union workers falling
further and further behind economically). When the public air traffic
controllers organization (PATCO) goes on strike for new benefits – threatening
to shut down all air traffic (and the nation’s economy) – Reagan mobilizes
the military air traffic controllers to take their place. PATCO soon
backs down – and most of America cheers (the strongly pro-union Democrats
fume – but sense that the nation is not with them on this issue).
This is in keeping with what
is going on in England under the lead of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister
since 1979. The English have grown very tired of British unions shutting
down the nation’s economy every time one or another of them wants a new
round of benefits. The Conservative Prime Minister Thatcher confronts the
unions (something the Labour Party would never do), backs them down, and
frees the English economy for astonishing growth. Thatcher and Reagan,
sharing very similar outlooks on things, become close friends across the
Atlantic.
This toughness also shows
up in their handling of foreign affairs. In April 1982 the generals
of Argentina, who have been keeping a cruel and unpopular dictatorship
going over the country, decide that a bold foreign venture might restore
some popularity to them. They invade the British Falkland Islands
east of Argentina in the Atlantic Ocean and claim it as Argentinian land.
At first the Argentinians -- and all Latin Americans -- cheer the move.
But Thatcher (with Reagan’s strong approval) strikes back and sends British
troops to recapture the islands. By June the Argentinian defeat is
total. This topples Argentina’s military dictatorship, freeing Argentina
from years of oppression – and confirms Thatcher as the “Iron Lady.”
This is followed the next
year (1983) by American military action in Lebanon – which however turns
out quite differently. Problems in Lebanon had been going on since
the mid-1970s when the huge influx of mostly Muslim Palestinian refugees
fleeing Israel’s wrath destabilized the balance of power between Muslim
Lebanese and Christian Lebanese. Lebanon was transformed from the
jewel of the Eastern Mediterranean into a battle zone of various warlords
and their private armies. In 1982, Begin decided to send Israeli
troops into Lebanon – at first merely to clear the border regions with
Israel with PLO militants who used the area to launch raids into Israel.
But he quickly expanded his goals to include the invasion of the capital,
Beirut, to destroy the PLO base there, thrown out the Syrian troops there
(ostensibly to bring some kind of peace to the country) and to set up a
Christian Lebanese government there which would be presumably an Israeli
ally. The US tried to broker a new peace between Israel and the Arabs
– and a UN peacekeeping force (which included American soldiers) was set
to Lebanon to stabilize the country. But soon thereafter the Israelis
turned two Palestinian refugee camps over to Christian Lebanese and then
stood by and watched as the Christian proceeded to slaughter 800 (mostly
women and children) of the inhabitants of the Palestinian camps.
The world now reacts in outrage. Although Israel forces Ariel Sharon
to leave the cabinet for his role in the affair – this hardly satisfies
Arab Hizballah militants who (in April) blow up the US embassy in Beirut,
killing 40 people – then (in October) French and American military barracks,
this time killing 58 French and 241 American troops.
(Reagan – waiting a bit so that it would not look as if he was leaving
in defeat by a group of terrorists – withdraws the rest of the US military
forces in Lebanon the following February. Israel pulls out in mid
1985 – and Lebanon plunges deeper into civil war.)
But Reagan rebounds from
the humiliation in Beirut by sending US Marines only a few days later to
a tiny Caribbean Island, Grenada, when a leftist government there lets
conditions in the country turn chaotic.
Reagan’s second term is caught
up in a scandal known as the Iran-Contra Affair. In 1985 his National
Security Advisor – using Israel as a go-between – worked a secret deal
with Iran, promising to sell Iran arms (it was involved in a ruinous war
with Iraq and needed arms badly) in exchange for Iran using its influence
to gain the release of Americans held hostage by Muslim fanatics in Lebanon.
This is all very illegal – as officially Americans are not allowed to negotiate
with kidnappers – and as Iran is supposed to be under an American boycott.
Further, the money Iran pays for the illegal arms is being funneled secretly
by the CIA through Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North to Nicaraguan
expatriate soldiers, called the contras, who are fighting to overthrow
the Leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. This too is illegal
– as Congress has made it very clear that the US is to stay out of Nicaragua’s
civil war. In the fall of 1986 this all comes before the notice of
Congress and the American public – and it looks as if the Reagan government
might be saddled with a scandal as big as Nixon’s Watergate Affair.
But Reagan fires a number of his officials – and by a year later seems
somehow to have kept himself out of impeachment danger. The American public
(with the exception of certain Democrats), it seems, is not interested
in a lynching the way it was in the days of the Watergate Affair.
And the year after that (1988), as Reagan finishes out his last year in
office, his approval rating is running at 63% – a very high figure.
Indeed, to many Americans,
it now seems that the powers of political, economic and military diplomacy
that Congress had taken away from the Presidency in the wild days of Watergate
need to be restored to the President – and people such as Ollie North should
be acknowledged as patriots working in the best interest of the country
– not as criminals. The Liberal mood of the mid-1970s has definitely
swung during the Reagan 1980s back to a more Conservative mood in the country.
1981: Greece becomes the 10th
member state of the European Community
1986: Spain and Portugal become
the 11th and 12th members of the European Community
Carter idealism self-destructs economically
and politically – opening the way for
a strong-willed Reagan (of
the old “Vet” generation) to enter the White House in 1981
Reagan pursues American foreign
relations negotiating from strength (not “moral purity”)
Russia tries to keep up –
but begins to break down from built-in economic inefficiency
Gorbachev tries to reform
the Russian Communist system – but merely collapses it instead
not only in Russia but in
all the former Stalin-dominated countries of East Europe
Meanwhile America initiates
a veritable revolution in communications technology
especially based on the personal
computer
With the Boomers now in positions
of social influence, a cultural revolution takes place along
a number of fronts
– united by a single vision of “ the enemy”: the straight,
Anglo,
Christian White male
who has so long directed American life
Traditional (Christian) America
fights back, with the issues of abortion, prayer in public life,
Christian schooling the major
hot buttons
1990s - The sole Superpower enjoys
a decade of incredible material prosperity -- and cultural
hedonism
Bush’s victory against Iraq
in the Gulf War puts Vietnam defeatism behind America
restoring a sense of America’s
rightful place as a sole superpower leading the world
But economic difficulties
oust Bush and bring in the Boomer Clinton to the White House
Clinton undertakes reforms
which explode in his face and which give Congressional
Republican leader Gingrich
a chance to channel traditionalist outrage into a Republican
takeover of Congress
Congressman Gingrich upstages
an unfocused Clinton with his “Contract for America” –
moving “flexible” Clinton
to take up Gingrich’s program himself – stealing his thunder
Ethnic strife in Bosnia and
Kosovo refine America’s role as world policeman
The world watches as Russia
strives to find stability as a “democracy”
Morally “flexible” Clinton
gets caught in a sex scandal – but manages to survive politically
1993: The Maastricht treat
Treaty joins the members of the EEC into a single economic entity: The
European Union
1995: Austria, Finland and
Sweden join the EU. Norway fails to ratify accession.
2000s - Muslim terrorist destruction
of the World Trade Center focuses Bush Jr.’s presidency
Producing military/diplomatic
resolve in Afghanistan + unilateral military venturism in Iraq
Bush’s diplomatic and military
response to al-Qaeda terrorists inspires world confidence
But his Boomer tendency to
confuse personal goals with group goals draws him into Iraq
and undermines that same
support
May 2004 - 10 more countries
join the European Union - making a total of 25 members
The original 15: Austria,
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain.
The 10 new member states:
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia.
Candidate countries are:
Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
Countries with applications
pending are: Croatia, Macedonia. |
