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The Cold War Circa 1960 Instead of the World Wide Web, we had a World Wide Cold War - the free world versus the Communists. The prime influence on life after high school for males in 1960 was the draft. The Selective Service System artificially stimulated military enlistment fueling Uncle Sam's defense system. There was no GI bill, but there was the pervasive military draft. Just the threat of the draft benefited the economy to keep large numbers of graduating students from further bloating the unemployment rates. Military wages were notoriously low and subsidized the economy geared to the Cold War and containment of Communism. The early 1960's were a time of back yard bomb shelters. In case of nuclear attack, bend over, duck your head, grab your ankles and kiss your sweet ass goodbye -- a parody of the official civil defense movies. The Iron Curtain separating East and West in Europe closed completely in August 1961, when the infamous Wall was erected in Berlin. The Berlin Crisis with tanks facing each other a stone's throw apart at Checkpoint Charlie continued into the Cuban missile crisis while above ground nuclear testing was insanely spewing radioactive isotopes throughout the earth's atmosphere. In the Far East, tensions continued over Taiwan. The domino theory postulated rather simplistically that if one country fell to the Communists, then it would snowball toppling nearby countries, so it had to be contained. First came the incremental loss of the eastern European states behind the advancing Iron Curtain. And China fell to the Red hordes, North Korea invaded South Korea and Castro established a Communist regime in Cuba. No U.S. President could face a re-election if another freedom loving country fell on his watch. (We never met a dictator we didn't embrace if he were anti-Communist.) The dominant domino theory ignored the forces of raw nationalism most notably as it manifested itself in Vietnam. That miscalculation would lead to the erection of another Wall - on the Mall in Washington DC. John Fitzgerald Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election campaigning on the non-existent missile gap. Most young people probably would have voted for him, but the voting age was 21 years. Sputnik and other Russian satellites were whirring around the planet. Paranoia was rampant. "If ya ain't with us, you're agin us!" Things were simplified. No penumbra, no shades of gray. It was either "Red" or white. Drinking was fun and a frequent object of jokes and comedy routines even by the sentimental Red Skelton and his Clem Kadiddlehopper TV character. Servicemen had clubs on base or post with cut-rate drink prices. Drinking helped breakdown social barriers especially for the shy souls thrust upon dozens of other adolescent servicemen from every section of the country. Cigarettes were cheap in the Navy Exchange. The pill would soon facilitate casual sex before we knew AIDS. The most violent cartoons - such as Tom & Jerry and RoadRunner - were also the most hilarious. The Cold War early 1960's were more relaxed, unburden with political correctness. Most people trusted their government and rationalized patriotically, "My country, right or wrong!" But by the mid-1960s that trust was eroding rapidly. Vietnam, it has been said, was the first war we didn't win, but we didn't lose it either, or else there would have had to have been another round of war-crimes trials. |