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Tema 59:
Evolución política,
social y económica
de EEUU después
de 1945. Panorama
Literario.
Madhatter Wylder
30/06/2009

Tema 59:
E
Evolución política, social y económicca de EEUU desde 1945 y su política
a Internacional. Pa
anorama literario actual en los EEU
UU.
2
Table of Conte
ents
1. Tim
meline. ____________________________________
________________________________
____ 3
2. Poostwar Ameriica _____________________________
________________________________
____ 4
2.11. Cold War. ___________
_ ________________________
____________________________________
_____ 4
2.1.1. Origins of
o the Cold warr. _______________________________________________________________
_____ 5
2.1.2. Containmment. _________________________________ _______________________________________
_____ 5
2.1.3. The coldd war in Asia annd the Middle east.
e ________________________________________________
_____ 7
2.1.4. Eisenhowwer and the colld war.____________________
_______________________________________
_____ 8
2.1.5. The coldd war at home. _________________________ _______________________________________
_____ 8
2.22. The post-w
war economy: 1945-60. _______________
____________________________________
_____ 9
2.2.1. The fair deal._________________________________________________________________________
_____ 9
2.2.2. Eisenhowwer’s approachh. ________________________
_______________________________________
____ 10
2.33. The Culturre of the 19500s. _____________________
____________________________________
____ 10
2.3.2. Desegregation. ________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 12
3. Deecades of Ch
hange. ___________________________
________________________________
___ 13
3.22. Lyndon Joh
hnson and th
he Great socieety. _________
____________________________________
____ 13
3.33. Internation
nal affairs. __________________________
____________________________________
____ 14
3.3.1. Confronntation with Cubba. _______________________
_______________________________________
____ 14
3.3.2. The Viettnam War. _____________________________ _______________________________________
____ 15
3.44. Nixon’s acccomplishmen
nts and defeatts. __________
____________________________________
____ 16
3.55. Post-Vietnaam foreign poolicy. ___________________
____________________________________
____ 17
3.66. The Counteer-culture. __________________________
____________________________________
____ 17
4. Toowards the 211st Century.______________________
________________________________
___ 18
4.11. Conservatism and the rise of Ronald
d Reagan. ___
____________________________________
____ 18
4.1.1. The econnomy of the 1980s. _____________________ _______________________________________
____ 19
4.1.2. Foreign affairs. ________________________________ _______________________________________
____ 20
4.1.2.1. Unnited States & Soviet Union rellations. ______
_______________________________________
____ 20
4.1.2.2. Irann-contra and Bllack Monday. _____________
_ _______________________________________
____ 21
4.22. The presideency of George Bush. ________________
____________________________________
____ 21
4.2.2. The Gulf War._________________________________
_______________________________________
____ 22
4.33. Bill Clinton
n. _________________________________
____________________________________
____ 23
4.44. George W. Bush ______________________________
____________________________________
____ 25
5. Litterature in th
he post-war period.
p _______________
________________________________
___ 27
5.11 Henry Milleer (1891-19800). _____________________
____________________________________
____ 27
5.22. The 40s and
d 50s ______________________________
____________________________________
____ 28
5.2.1. Saul Belllow (1915-19??) ______________________________________________________________
____ 28
5.2.2. The Beaat generation.____________________________
_______________________________________
____ 29
5.33. The 60s and
d the 70s. ___________________________
____________________________________
____ 31
5.3.1. Vladimirr Nabokov (18999 - 1977) _________________
_______________________________________
____ 32
5.44. North-Ameerican Dramaa ______________________
____________________________________
____ 33
5.4.1. Tennessee Williams (19911-83) ___________________
_______________________________________
____ 34
5.4.2. Arthur Miller
M (1915 - ) _________________________
_______________________________________
____ 35
Biblioography ___________________________________
________________________________
___ 36
Summ
mary ______________________________________
________________________________
___ 37
Iván Matellaness’ Notes

Tema 59:
Evolución política, social y económica de EEUU desde 1945 y su política Internacional. Panorama literario actual en los EEUU.
3
Democrat.
F. D. Roosevelt
1. Timeline.
-1934: Publication of H. MILLER’s TROPIC OF CANCER in Paris.
-1936: Publication of H. MILLER’s TROPIC OF CAPRICORN in Paris.
-1944: G.I. BILL helped soldiers back into civilian life (loans for home-buying, university education … )
-1945: May. The German 3rd Reich surrenders.
nd
September, 2 . Japan surrendered.
September. TRUMAN presented his 21-point program (against unfair employment practices).
First T. WILLIAMS play: THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
-1947: TRUMAN, announced details to Congress of what became known as the TRUMAN DOCTRINE.
June. George MARSHALL, announced details of what became known as the MARSHALL PLAN.
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES investigated the motion-picture industry to deter
mine whether communist sentiments were being reflected in popular films.
st
JACKIE ROBINSON became the 1 black Baseball player (Brooklyn Dodgers) in the major leagues.
Harry S. Truman
Publication of S. BELLOW’s THE VICTIM.

H. MILLER’s first Broadway play: ALL MY SONS
-1948: Communist coup d'etat in CZECHOSLOVAKIA.
June. Soviet forces blockaded BERLIN as a complaint of the creation of a self-governing Germany.
USA officially recognized the new state of ISRAEL 15 minutes after it was proclaimed.
-1949: Soviet Union lifted the BERLIN Blockade.
April. The USA & 11 other countries established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
October. Communist Mao ZEDONG seized power in CHINA.
Publication of H. MILLER’s SEXUS from his ROSY CRUCIFIXATION trilogy.
Publication of A. MILLER’s best-known play DEATH OF A SALESMAN.
-1950: NORTH KOREAN troops crossed the 38th parallel and attacked SOUTH KOREA.
TRUMAN authorized the development of a new and more powerful hydrogen weapon.
-1953: North Korean and US finally reach and agreement and the “war” stopped.
Publication of H. MILLER’s PLEXUS from his ROSY CRUCIFIXATION trilogy.
Publication of W. BURROUGHS’s JUNKIE.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
-1954: SUPREME COURT abolish the Plessy separate but equal doctrine (Brown v. Board of Education).
Vietnam is divided: HO CHI MINH had the North, & NGO DINH DIEM (anticommunist) had the south.
-1956: HUNGARY democratic rebellions against the SU.
SUPREME COURT ruled that bus segregation, like school segregation, was unconstitutional.
DIEM (backed by EISENHOWER) refused to held elections in VIETNAM to unify the country.
Publication of GINSBERG’s HOWL.
-1957: CIVIL RIGHTS ACT: federal intervention when blacks were denied their right to vote.
-1959: FIDEL CASTRO's revolutionary army seized power in Cuba.
-1960: Publication of H. MILLER’s NEXUS from his ROSY CRUCIFIXATION trilogy.
-1961: Attack at the BAY OF PIGS (Cuba)
JFK
-1962: CUBA MISSILE CRISIS: KENNEDY demanded the Soviets to remove nuclear weapons in Cuba.
-1963: NGO DINH DIEM dies in VIETNAM (south).
nd
November 22 . J. F. KENNEDY was assassinated in Dallas (Texas).
L. B. Johnson
-1964: CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.

August. GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION: President can take all measures to repel any armed attack.
Publication of H. MILLER’s TROPIC OF CANCER & TROPIC OF CAPRICORN in USA.
-1965: 25,000 troops were sent to VIETNAM.
-1968: 500,00 troops were sent to VIETNAM. RICHARD NIXON became president of the USA
-1969: WOODSTOCK: 3-day music festival in rural New York State attended by almost 500,000 people.
Richard Nixon
-1970: USA invaded CAMBODIA to cut off North Vietnamese supply lines.
Publication of T WILLIAMS’ THE FROSTED GLASS COFFIN.
-1972: NIXON visited BEIJING (Communist China capital)
-1973: Henry KISSINGER signed a cease-fire btw the USA and North Vietnam. USA departure.
War btw Israel vs. Egypt & Syria. SAUDI ARABIA embargo on oil to Israel’s allies USA.
SUPREME COURT Roe v. Wade: Supported a woman's right to abort in the early months of pregnancy
-1974: NIXON resigned because of the WATERGATE AFFAIR.
November. FORD met with Soviet leader LEONID BREZHNEV in Vladivostok
Gerald R.
-1975: NORTH VIETNAM consolidated its control over the entire country.
Ford
HELSINKI CONFERENCE.
-1976: S. BELLOW wins the Literature Nobel prize.
-1977: Jimmy CARTER became president of the USA.
-1978: CARTER met at Camp David w/Egyptian President ANWAR AL-SADAT & Israeli PM MENACHEM
Jimmy Carter
-1979: Peace treaty btw Egypt and Israel.

Soviet invasion of AFGHANISTAN.
Fundamentalist revolution in IRAN of the Shiite Muslim leader AYATOLLAH R. KHOMEINI.
SANDINISTAS overthrew the repressive right-wing SOMOZA regime in NICARAGUA.
Iván Matellanes’ Notes

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4
-1981: RONALD REAGAN became the new USA president.

-1985: R. REAGAN & M. GORBACHEV met in Geneva.
-1986: USA Congress approved $100,00,000 aid for the Nicaraguan CONTRAS (against SANDINISTAS)
R. Reagan
USA Congress overrode REAGAN's veto & imposed economic sanctions on SOUTH AFRICA.
-1987: REAGAN & GORBACHEV signed the INTERMEDIATE-RANGE NUCLEAR FORCESTreaty, destroying a whole
category of nuclear weapons.
USA had secretly sold arms to IRAN trying to free American hostages held in Lebanon, & funds
from those sales had been diverted to the CONTRAS during a period prohibited by the Congress.
-1989: December. Brief USA invasion of PANAMA to deposed dictator GENERAL MANUEL ANTONIO NORIEGA.
-1990: BUSH’s State of the Union message announced his cut of USA troops in Germany to 195,000.
August. Invasion of KUWAIT by Iraq
George Bush
September. SU accepted a unified Germany with full membership in NATO.

November.12TH RESOLUTION: Use of force by UN if Iraq didn’t withdraw from Kuwait by January 1991
-1991: War against IRAK in the Gulf.
BUSH & GORBACHEV signed the STRATEGIC ARMS REDUCTION TREATY (START) in Moscow.
October. ISRAEL and PALESTINIAN delegation negotiations in Madrid.
-1992: BILL CLINTON became the USA president.
-1994: Republican party controls both houses of the Congress.
Clinton
Bill
-1996: WELFARE BILL.

-1998: CLINTON’s Lewinsky scandal.
-2000: GEORGE W. BUSH became the USA president
-2001: BUSH withdrew USA from some international treaties: Kyoto’s & 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
George W. Bush
September. Terrorist attacks on the WORLD TRADE CENTER and the PENTAGON.
October. USA&UK attacked against AFGHANISTAN, for Taliban refusal to surrender OSAMA BIN L.
-2002: BUSH addressed the UN, challenging the organization to enforce its own resolutions against Iraq.
-2003: President BUSH declared war on Iraq and USA troops began bombing BAGHDAD.
May. IRAQ WAR was over, though neither massive destruction weapons nor OSAMA were found.
2. Postwar America
2.1. Cold War.
The COLD WAR was the most important political issue of the early
postwar period. It grew out of longstanding disagreements between
the SOVIET UNION (SU) and the USA. At the war's end, differences surfaced.
The USA hoped to share with other countries its conception of liberty,
equality and democracy. America now fostered its familiar position of free
trade, and sought to eliminate trade barriers, which were believed to
promote economic growth at home and abroad.
However, the SOVIET UNION had its own agenda. The Russian
historical tradition of centralized government contrasted with the
American emphasis on democracy. Marxist-Leninist ideology had been
minimized during the war but still guided Soviet policy. Devastated by the
struggle in which 20 million Soviet citizens had died, the Soviet Union was
intent on rebuilding and on protecting itself from another such terrible conflict.
Soviets were particularly concerned about another invasion of their
territory from the west and demanded defensible borders and regimes
sympathetic to its aims in Eastern Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia …).

Tema 59:
5
2.1.1. Origins of the Cold war.

HARRY TRUMAN succeeded FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT as president
before the end of the war. He was an unpretentious man who initially felt ill-
prepared to govern the United States. ROOSEVELT had not confided in him about
complex postwar issues and he had little prior experience in international
affairs. However, TRUMAN responded quickly to new challenges. Impulsive,
he proved willing to make quick decisions about the problems he
faced. His judgments about how to respond to the SU had an important impact
on the early Cold War.
The COLD WAR developed as differences about the shape of the
postwar world created suspicion between the USA and the Soviet Union. The
first such conflict occurred over POLAND. Moscow demanded a
government subject to Soviet influence; Washington wanted a more
independent, representative government following the Western
model. At his first meeting with Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav
Molotov, TRUMAN revealed his firm intention to stand on Polish self-
determination. Relations deteriorated from that point onward.
During the closing months of WW2, Soviet military forces
occupied all of Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow used its military
power to support the efforts of the communist parties in Eastern
Europe and crush the democratic parties, culminating in the coup d'etat in
Czechoslovakia in 1948.
2.1.2. Containment.
Containment of the SU became American policy in the postwar
years. George KENNAN, a top official at the US embassy in Moscow, defined
the new approach in an article published the prestigious journal Foreign
Affairs. He argued that the Soviet Union was fundamentally opposed to
coexistence w/the West & desired a world-wide extension of the
Soviet system. However, KENNAN argued that communism could be
contained if the West showed a determined opposition.

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6
The first significant application of the CONTAINMENT DOCTRINE came
in the eastern Mediterranean. UK had been supporting Greece, where

communist forces threatened the ruling monarchy in a civil war. In
1947 Britain told the United States that it could no longer afford such aid.
Quickly, the US State Department devised a plan for US assistance. But
support for a new interventionist policy was only possible if Truman
was willing to scare the whole country.
Truman was prepared to do so. In a statement that came to be known as
the TRUMAN DOCTRINE, he declared, "I believe that it must be the policy of
the USA to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by
armed minorities or by communists’ pressures." To that end he asked
Congress to provide $400 million for economic and military aid to
Greece. In turn, his statements inspired a wave of hysterical anti-
communism throughout the country.
CONTAINMENT also called for extensive economic aid to assist the
recovery of war-torn Western Europe. With many of the region's nations
economically and politically unstable, the USA feared that local communist
parties, directed by Moscow, would come to power. In mid-1947, Secretary of
State GEORGE MARSHALL, announced details of what became known as the
MARSHALL PLAN or the EUROPEAN RECOVERY PROGRAM (ERP). Marshall
offered American financial aid for a programme of European economic
recovery. A conference was held in Paris in September and 16 nations in
Western Europe agreed on a four year recovery plan.
Postwar Germany was divided into US, Soviet Union, British and
French zones of occupation, with the German capital of Berlin (itself divided
into 4 zones), near the center of the Soviet zone. The USA, UK & France had
discussed converting their zones into a single, self-governing republic,
but the SU opposed such plans. On June 23, 1948, Soviet forces
blockaded Berlin, cutting off all road & rail access from the West, lifted 231
days afterwards.

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Soviet domination of Eastern Europe alarmed the West. The USA

created a military alliance to complement economic efforts at
CONTAINMENT. In 1949 the USA and 11 other countries established the NORTH
ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), an alliance based on the principle
of collective security. An attack against one was to be considered an
attack against all, to be met by appropriate force.
2.1.3. The cold war in Asia and the Middle east.

In CHINA, Americans worried about the advances of MAO ZEDONG
and his communist party, who finally seized power in 1949. When he
announced that his new regime would support the SU against the
imperialist USA, it appeared that communism was spreading out of control.
The KOREAN WAR brought armed conflict between the USA and China.
The Allies had divided Korea along the 38th parallel WW2: The North for the SU
and the south for the USA. In June 1950 North Korean troops crossed the
38th parallel and attacked southward. Truman sent American forces to
Korea. The war oscillated back and forth.
The Cold War stakes were high, but the government's effort to fight
a limited war caused frustration among many Americans who could
not understand the need for restraint. The two sides finally reached an
agreement in July 1953, during the first term of DWIGHT EISENHOWER
(Truman's successor).
In 1948, the US officially recognized the new state of ISRAEL 15
minutes after it was proclaimed (a decision Truman made over strong
resistance from Marshall and the State Department). While cultivating close ties
with Israel, the United States still sought to keep the friendship of Arab
states opposed to Israel.

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8
2.1.4. Eisenhower and the cold war.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER was a war hero & had a natural manner that
made him widely popular. In the postwar years, he served as head of
NATO before seeking the Republican presidential nomination. He shared with
TRUMAN a basic view of American foreign policy. EISENHOWER perceived
communism as a monolithic force struggling for world supremacy.
EISENHOWER's basic commitment to contain communism
remained, (despite their step back during the Hungary democratic rebellions)
and to that end he increased American reliance on a nuclear shield. In
1950 TRUMAN had authorized the development of a new and more
powerful hydrogen weapon. Now Eisenhower, in an effort to keep budget
expenditures under control, proposed a policy of massive revenge. The USA
was prepared to use atomic weapons if the nation was attacked. In
practice, however, Eisenhower deployed US military forces with great caution,
resisting all suggestions to consider the use of nuclear weapons in Indochina or
in Taiwan.
2.1.5. The cold war at home.

Not only did the Cold War shape USA foreign policy, it also had a
profound effect on domestic affairs. Americans had long feared radical
rebellions & strong efforts were made after WW2 to root out
communism within the USA.
Foreign events and espionage scandals contributed to the anti-communist
hysteria of the period. In 1949 the SU exploded its own atomic device,
which made Americans believe that they would be the next target. Communists
spies were everywhere, and a mad search was set. In 1947, for instance, the
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES investigated the motion-
picture industry to determine whether communist sentiments were
being reflected in popular films. When some writers refused to testify,
they were cited for contempt and sent to prison.
The most vigorous anti-communist warrior was the Republican Senator JOSEPH
R. MCCARTHY. He claimed that he had a list of 205 known communists in

Tema 59:
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the State Department. But MCCARTHY went too far. In short, MCCARTHY
represented the worst domestic excesses of the Cold War.
2.2. The post-war economy: 1945-60.

The war brought the return of prosperity, and in the postwar
period the USA consolidated its position as the world's richest country.
The growth had different sources. The automobile industry was partially
responsible, as the number of automobiles produced annually quadrupled. A
housing boom fueled the expansion. The rise in defense spending as the
Cold War escalated also played a part.
Workers found their own lives changing as industrial America changed.
Fewer workers produced goods; more provided services. By 1956 a
majority held white-collar jobs (managers, teachers, salespersons & office
employees). Some firms granted a guaranteed annual wage, long-term
employment contracts and other benefits. With such changes, labor
militancy was undermined and some class distinctions began to fade.
Farmers, on the other hand, faced tough times. Farming became a
big business and Family farms found it difficult to compete, and more and more
farmers left the land.
Americans moved out of the cities into new suburbs, where they
hoped to find affordable housing for the larger families’ offspring (postwar baby
boom). As suburbs grew, businesses moved into the new areas. Large shopping
centers containing a great variety of stores changed consumer patterns.
2.2.1. The fair deal.

THE FAIR DEAL was the name given to Harry TRUMAN's domestic
program. Building on ROOSEVELT's NEW DEAL, Truman believed that the
federal government should guarantee economic opportunity and
social stability, and he struggled to achieve those ends against fierce
political opposition from conservative non-interventional policy.
TRUMAN's first priority in the immediate postwar period was to make
the transition to a peacetime economy. The G.I. BILL (1944) helped
soldiers back into civilian life by providing such benefits as guaranteed

Tema 59:
10
loans for home-buying and financial aid for industrial training and
university education.
Less than a week after the war ended, Truman presented Congress with a
21-point program, which provided for protection against unfair
employment practices, a higher minimum wage and greater
unemployment compensation. In the next several months, he added other
proposals for health insurance and atomic energy legislation.
When TRUMAN finally left office in 1953, his FAIR DEAL was but a
mixed success. In July 1948 he banned racial discrimination in federal
government hiring practices and ordered an end to segregation in the
military. The minimum wage had risen, and social security programs
had expanded.
2.2.2. Eisenhower’s approach.

Dwight EISENHOWER accepted the basic framework of
government responsibility established by the New Deal, but limited
the presidential role. He termed his approach modern Republicanism:
Conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings.
EISENHOWER's first priority was to balance the budget after years of
deficits. He wanted to cut spending, cut taxes and maintain the value of the
dollar. Republicans were willing to risk unemployment to keep inflation low. The
administration transferred control of offshore oil lands from the federal
government to the states. It also favored private development of energy
sources rather than the public approach the Democrats had initiated.
2.3. The Culture of the 1950s.

Though men and women had been forced into new employment
patterns during WW2, once it was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed.
Men expected to be the breadwinners, while women (even when they
worked) assumed their proper place was at home.
But not all Americans conformed to such cultural norms. A
number of writers, called BEAT GENERATION, rebelled against conventional
values. They asserted intuition over reason, Eastern mysticism over

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Western institutionalized religion. The beats went out of their way to

challenge the patterns of respectability.
Their literary work showed their sense of freedom. JACK KEROUAC
typed his best-selling novel On the Road on a 75-meter roll of paper.
Lacking accepted punctuation and paragraph structure, the book glorified the
possibilities of the free life. Poet ALLEN GINSBERG gained similar notoriety
for his poem Howl, a scathing critique of modern, mechanized
civilization.
Tennessee singer Elvis Presley popularized black music in the
form of rock and roll, and shocked more former Americans with his ducktail
haircut and undulating hips. In addition, Elvis and other rock and roll
singers demonstrated that there was a white audience for black music,
thus testifying to the increasing integration of American culture.
2.3.1. Origins of the Civil rights movement.
During the war African Americans had challenged discrimination in the
military services. Millions of blacks had left southern farms for northern cities,
where they hoped to find better jobs. Instead, they found crowded conditions
in urban slums.
JACKIE ROBINSON dramatized the racial question in 1947 when he
broke baseball's color line and began playing in the major leagues. A
member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he often faced trouble with opponents
and teammates as well. But an outstanding first season led to his
acceptance and prepared the way for other black players, who now left
the Negro leagues to which they had been confined.
Harry TRUMAN supported the civil rights movement. He believed in
political equality (though not in social equality) and recognized the growing
importance of the black urban vote. TRUMAN sent a 10-point civil rights
program to Congress. TRUMAN issued an executive order barring
discrimination in federal employment, ordered equal treatment in the
armed forces and worked towards an end to military segregation. Blacks
in the South enjoyed few, if any, civil and political rights. More than

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12
1,000,000 black soldiers fought in WW2, but those who came from
the South could not vote.
2.3.2. Desegregation.
Blacks took matters into their own hands, since they were
determined to abolish the judicial separate but equal doctrine, established in
the court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, that segregation of black and
white students in schools was constitutional.
Blacks achieved their goal of abolishing Plessy in 1954 when the
Supreme Court (presided by an EISENHOWER appointee) handed down its
Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The Court declared unanimously that
separate facilities are inherently unequal, and decreed that the separate
but equal doctrine could no longer be used in public schools.
EISENHOWER, although sympathetic to the needs of the South as
it faced a major transition, acted quickly to see that the law was
confirmed. He ordered the desegregation of Washington, D.C., schools
to serve as a model for the rest of the country.
In 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black madam sat down in the
front of a bus in a section reserved by law for whites. Ordered to move
to the back, she refused. Police arrested her for violating the segregation
statutes. Black leaders organized a boycott of the bus system. MARTIN
LUTHER KING JR. became a spokesman for the protest and was arrested,
as he would be again and again. About a year later, the SUPREME COURT
ruled that bus segregation, like school segregation, was
unconstitutional. The civil rights movement had won an important victory
and discovered its most powerful leader in MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
African Americans also sought to secure their voting rights. Although the
15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed the right to vote,
many states had found ways to avoid that law. EISENHOWER, working with
Senate majority leader LYNDON B. JOHNSON, lent his support to a
congressional effort to guarantee the vote. The Civil Rights Act of
1957 authorized federal intervention in cases where blacks were
denied the chance to vote.

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13
3. Decades of Change.
3.1. J. F. Kennedy.
JOHN F. KENNEDY, Democratic winner in the election of 1960, was the
youngest man ever to win the presidency. In his first inaugural address he
concluded with an eloquent request: "Ask not what your country can do
for you, ask what you can do for your country." Even though the
Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress, conservative
Southerners resisted plans to increase federal aid to education,
provide health insurance and create a new Department of Urban
Affairs. And so, despite his rhetoric, Kennedy's policies were often limited
and restrained. In fact, the overall legislative record of the Kennedy
administration was almost inexistent. He gained only a modest increase in
the minimum wage. Kennedy had planned an ambitious legislative program
for the last year of his term. But then on November 22, 1963, he was
assassinated while riding in an open car during a visit to Dallas, Texas.
It was a traumatic and defining moment for a generation, just as the
death of Franklin Roosevelt had been for an earlier one.
3.2. Lyndon Johnson and the Great society.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON, a Texan who was majority leader in the Senate
before becoming Kennedy's vice president, was a masterful politician. He
had been schooled in Congress, where he developed an extraordinary ability to
get things done. As president, he wanted to use his power aggressively
to eliminate poverty and spread the benefits of prosperity to all.
JOHNSON took office determined to secure the measures that
KENNEDY had sought. In 1964 JOHNSON succeeded in gaining passage of the
CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. Introduced by KENNEDY, it was the most far-reaching
piece of civil rights legislation enacted since Reconstruction. By the
spring of 1964, he had begun to use the name GREAT SOCIETY to describe his
reform program.

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14
On the economic front, JOHNSON pushed successfully for a tax cut,

then pressed for a poverty program KENNEDY had initiated. Medical care
came next. TRUMAN had proposed a centralized scheme 20 years earlier, but
had failed to gain congressional consent. Under JOHNSON's leadership,
Congress enacted MEDICARE (a health insurance program for the elderly)
& MEDICAID (a program providing health-care assistance for the poor).
Similarly, JOHNSON succeeded in the effort to provide aid for elementary
and secondary schooling where Kennedy had failed.
In all, the GREAT SOCIETY was the greatest burst of legislative
activity since the New Deal. But support for the JOHNSON administration
policies began to weaken as early as 1966. Some of Johnson's programs did not
live up to expectations. Still, the GREAT SOCIETY achieved some reductions
in poverty.
3.3. International affairs.

3.3.1. Confrontation with Cuba.
Ever since FIDEL CASTRO's revolutionary army seized power in 1959
and gained the support of the Soviet Union, relations with Cuba had
been tense. The USA broke diplomatic ties just before Kennedy assumed
office. The attack at the BAY OF PIGS in the spring of 1961 failed miserably.
The next year, seeking to recover lost prestige, KENNEDY stood firm
when he learned the Soviet Union was secretly installing offensive
nuclear missiles in Cuba. After considering different options, he decided on
quarantine to prevent Soviet ships from bringing additional missiles to Cuba,
and he demanded publicly that the Soviets remove the weapons. After
several days of tension, during which the world was closer than ever
before to nuclear war, the Soviets backed down.
The CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS marked a turning point in USA - Soviet
relations as both sides saw the need to calm tensions that could lead to
direct military conflict. The following year, the USA, the SU, and UK signed a
landmark Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear weapons tests in
the atmosphere.

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3.3.2. The Vietnam War.

INDOCHINA was still another Cold War battlefield. HO CHI MINH, a
Vietnamese communist, sought to liberate his nation from colonial
rule (from France) and took the American War for Independence as his model.
The United States provided France with economic aid, but even that assistance
could not prevent French defeat in 1954. At an INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN
GENEVA, VIETNAM was divided: Ho in power in the North and Ngo Dinh Diem,
(a Roman Catholic anti-communist in a largely Buddhist population) heading the
government in the South. Elections were to be held two years later to
unify the country.
EISENHOWER backed Diem's refusal to hold elections in 1956 and
began to increase economic and military aid. KENNEDY increased
assistance, and sent small numbers of military advisors, but still the
struggle between North and South continued. DIEM died in 1963.
The situation was more unstable than ever before. Guerrillas in
the South, known as VIET CONG, challenged the South Vietnamese
government, sometimes covertly, sometimes through their political arm.
Aided by North Vietnam, they gained ground.
Determined to halt communist advances in South Vietnam,
JOHNSON made the Vietnam War his own. JOHNSON won from Congress on
August 7, 1964, passage of the GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION, which allowed
the president to take all necessary measures to repel any armed
attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further
aggression. After his re-election in November 1964, he embarked on a
policy of escalation: From 25,000 soldiers in 1965, to 500,000 by 1968.
With horrible battles shown on television, Americans began to protest
their country's involvement in the war. Public dissatisfaction with USA
policy, especially among the young, pressured JOHNSON to begin negotiating
for peace. Anti-war sentiment in 1968 led JOHNSON to renounce any
intention of seeking another term. At the DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL
CONVENTION in Chicago protesters fought street battles with police. The
chaos in the Democratic Party helped elect Republican RICHARD NIXON.

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While slowly withdrawing American troops, NIXON ordered some

of the most fearful bombing in the war. He also invaded CAMBODIA in
1970 to cut off North Vietnamese supply lines. This led to another
round of protests and demonstrations, as students in many universities
took to the streets. In one such demonstration, at Kent State in Ohio, national
guard troops killed four students.
A cease-fire, negotiated for the USA by Nixon's national security adviser,
HENRY KISSINGER, was finally signed in 1973. Although American troops
departed, the war lasted into 1975, when North Vietnam consolidated its
control over the entire country.
The war had a tremendous price. It left VIETNAM devastated, with
millions killed. The USA spent over $150,000 million in a losing effort that
cost 58,000 American lives. The war also ended the Cold War foreign
policy consensus. The war led many young Americans to question the
actions of their own nation and its values.
3.4. Nixon’s accomplishments and defeats.

NIXON confronted a series of economic problems during his
presidency. Inflation rate, Dow-Jones average of industrial stocks fell 36%
and the unemployment rate reached 6.6 %. Factors beyond Nixon's control
undermined his economic policies. In 1973 the war between ISRAEL,
EGYPT and SYRIA provoked SAUDI ARABIA to impose an embargo on oil
shipped to Israel's ally: the USA. Other members of the OPEC quadrupled
their prices. Americans faced rapidly rising prices. Even when the embargo
ended the next year, prices remained high.
NIXON wanted to win an overwhelming re-election victory in 1972
that would bring Republican congressional majorities. Early in 1972, NIXON's
team proposed to tap the telephones of the Democratic National
Committee in the WATERGATE APARTMENT COMPLEX (Washington, D.C). The
attempt failed. When the burglars, carrying money and documents that
could ultimately be traced to The White House, were arrested, the
administration decided to cover up its involvement. Six days after the
discovery of the break-in, NIXON told the CIA to order the FBI to cease its

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investigation on the grounds that national security was compromised. Although

Nixon was overwhelmingly re-elected that year, the Washington Post continued
to investigate. As the scandal unfolded, the Democratic majority in the
Congress instituted impeachment proceedings against NIXON, who
resigned on August 9, 1974.
3.5. Post-Vietnam foreign policy.

In the late 1970s, serious problems emerged in relations with the Soviet
Union, and particularly with IRAN. President FORD continued the NIXON
administration policy with the SU. In November 1974, FORD met with
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok. The meeting resulted in a
preliminary agreement on further U.S.-Soviet arms control measures.
President Jimmy CARTER helped to achieve a significant step
forward between Egypt and Israel in which these countries ended 30
years in a state of war. Acting as both mediator and participant, CARTER
met in 1978 at Camp David, Maryland, with Egyptian President ANWAR AL-
SADAT and Israeli Prime Minister MENACHEM to begin to negotiate a peace

settlement. Both leaders returned to the United States to sign the peace
treaty at The White House in March 1979.
In 1979 Carter encountered more trouble with IRAN. After a
fundamentalist revolution, led by Shiite Muslim leader AYATOLLAH R.
KHOMEINI, Carter admitted the deposed shah to the USA for medical treatment.
Angry Iranian militants seized the American embassy in Teheran and held 53
American hostages for more than a year. Despite his efforts, Carter could not
secure their release, and his failure contributed to his electoral defeat.
3.6. The Counter-culture.

Young people in particular rejected the stable patterns of
middle-class life their parents had created in the decades after World War II.
Some plunged into radical political activity; many more embraced new
standards of dress and sexual behavior.
The visible signs of the counterculture filled American society in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. Hair grew longer and beards became common.

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Blue jeans and t-shirts took the place of jackets and ties. The use of illegal
drugs increased in an effort to free the mind from past constraints. Rock
and roll grew, proliferated and transformed into many musical variations. The
BEATLES, the ROLLING STONES and other British groups took the country by
storm. Songs with a political or social commentary, such as those by BOB
DYLAN, became common. The youth counterculture reached its apogee in
August 1969 at WOODSTOCK, a three-day music festival in rural New York
State attended by almost half-a-million persons. The festival gave its
name to the era: The Woodstock Generation.
4. Towards the 21st Century.

4.1. Conservatism and the rise of Ronald Reagan.
For many Americans, the economic, social and political trends of
the previous two decades (ranging from crime and racial polarization in
many urban centers, to the economic downturn and inflation of the Carter years)
engendered a mood of disappointment. Conservatives, long out of
power at the national level, were well positioned to exploit this new
mood. It was a time when many Americans were receptive to their
message of limited government, strong national defense and the
protection of traditional values against what were seen as an invasion of
a permissive and often chaotic modern society.
An important issue for conservatives was one of the most divisive and
emotional issues of the time: abortion. Opposition to the 1973 Supreme
Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which upheld a woman's right to an
abortion in the early months of pregnancy, brought together a wide array
of organizations and individuals. They included, but were not limited to, large
numbers of Catholics, political conservatives and religious
fundamentalists, most of whom regarded abortion under virtually any
circumstances as equivalent to murder.
Within the Republican Party, the right wing grew dominant once again.
Like the "Old Right," the New Right favored strict limits on government
intervention in the economy. But the New Right was willing to use state

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power to encourage its view of family values, restrict homosexual

behavior and censor pornography. In general, the New Right also favored
tough measures against crime, strong national defense, a
constitutional amendment to permit prayer in public schools, and
opposition to abortion. The figure who drew all these disparate strands
together was RONALD REAGAN.
REAGAN believed that government intruded too deeply into
American life. Throughout his administration, REAGAN also pursued a
program of deregulation more thoroughgoing than that begun by JIMMY
CARTER. REAGAN sought to eliminate regulations affecting the consumer,
the workplace and the environment that he argued were inefficient,
expensive & impeded economic growth.
4.1.1. The economy of the 1980s.

President REAGAN's domestic program was rooted in his belief that
the nation would prosper if the power of the private economic sector
was set free. His economists argued that a tax cut would lead to
increased business investment, increased earnings and increased
government incomes. President Reagan succeeded during his first year in
office in enacting the major components of his economic program, including a
25% tax cut for individuals to be phased in over three years.
The deep recession throughout 1982 (combined with falling oil
prices) had one important benefit: it ended the runaway inflation.
Conditions improved for some segments of the economy in late 1983; by early
1984, the USA entered one of the longest periods of sustained
economic growth since World War II.
Committed in his promise to lower taxes, REAGAN signed the
most sweeping federal tax-reform measure in 75 years during his
second term. This measure, which had general Democratic and Republican
support, lowered income tax rates, simplified tax brackets.
The increased military budget (combined with the tax cuts and the
growth in government health spending) resulted in the federal government
spending far more than it received in incomes each year.

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4.1.2. Foreign affairs.

In foreign policy, President REAGAN sought a more firm role for the
nation, and Central America provided an early test. The USA provided EL
SALVADOR with economic aid and military training when a guerrilla was
threatening to its government. It also actively encouraged the
transition to an elected democratic government.
U.S. policy toward NICARAGUA was much more controversial. In
1979 revolutionaries calling themselves Sandinistas overthrew the
repressive right-wing SOMOZA regime. The Sandinista was tied to Cuba and
the SU and opened its political system to democratic reforms. The focus of
REAGAN’s administration efforts shifted to support for the anti-
Sandinista resistance. Congress, under administration pressure, approved
$100,000,000 in military aid for the contras. Subsequently, the
administration of President GEORGE BUSH abandoned any effort to secure
military aid for the contras.
SOUTH AFRICA remained intransigent in the face of the Reagan
administration's efforts to encourage an end to racial apartheid
through the controversial policy of "constructive engagement." In 1986 the
USA Congress overrode Reagan's veto and imposed a set of economic
sanctions on South Africa. Only in December 1988 did years of patient USA
mediation contribute to an historic peace settlement and independence for
the territory of Namibia in southern Africa.
Despite its outspoken anti-communist rhetoric, the Reagan administration's
direct use of military force was relatively restrained (Caribbean island of
Grenada, Lebanon …)
4.1.2.1. United States & Soviet Union relations.

In relations with the Soviet Union, President REAGAN's declared policy
was one of peace through strength. Rooted in the Cold War tradition,
he was determined to stand firm in dealing with the evil empire, as he
termed the SU. In his first term, his administration spent unprecedented
sums for a massive defense buildup.

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After reelection in 1984, REAGAN softened his rigid position on arms

control. In November 1985, Reagan held a summit meeting with the new
Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Geneva. They agreed to seek 50%
reductions in strategic offensive nuclear arms as well as an interim
agreement on intermediate-range nuclear forces. In December 1987,
President REAGAN and General Secretary GORBACHEV signed the
INTERMEDIATE-RANGE NUCLEAR FORCES (INF) Treaty providing for the
destruction of a whole category of nuclear weapons.
4.1.2.2. Iran-contra and Black Monday.

The REAGAN administration's most serious foreign policy problem
surfaced in 1987, when Americans learned that the administration had
secretly sold arms to Iran in an attempt to win freedom for American
hostages held in Lebanon by radical organizations controlled by Iran's
Khomeini government. Investigation also revealed that funds from the arms
sales had been diverted to the Nicaraguan contras during a period
when Congress had prohibited such military aid.
4.2. The presidency of George Bush.

REAGAN’s vice president during all eight years of his presidency,
GEORGE BUSH, benefited greatly from REAGAN's popularity and was elected the
41st president of the USA in 1989.
During his first year in office, BUSH followed a conservative fiscal
program, with the same policies on taxes, spending and debt that were
faithful to the Reagan administration's economic program. Yet, with a budget
deficit, Bush found himself locked into a program permitting few new budget
items.
On environmental protection and education (issues which private
industry & local/state government pay most of the bills) Bush introduced
changes in policy. In November 1990, Bush signed a new legislation to
impose new federal standards on urban pollution (most of the costs
assigned to industrial polluters). He signed legislation ensuring physical
access for the disabled, but the costs were transferred to business.

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The president also launched a campaign to encourage volunteerism for social

beneficence.
In January 1990 President BUSH presented his budget proposal to
Congress. The budget negotiations dragged on, and by June (despite his
campaign promise: READ MY LIPS) President BUSH told congressional leaders
that changing circumstances in the national economy meant that tax
increases would have to be part of any overall budget package.
4.2.1. End to the Cold War.
In 1990, BUSH’s State of the Union message announced his intention to
cut USA troops stationed in Europe to 195,000. In February, the Bush
administration held discussions with the Soviets on the unification of East
and West Germany. Within seven months, after numerous bilateral and
multilateral discussions, the SU had renounced its wartime rights and
accepted a unified Germany with full membership in NATO. The Treaty
on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany was signed in Moscow on
September 12.
On July 31, 1991, the USA reached its last major arms agreement
with the SU when Presidents BUSH and GORBACHEV signed the long-
negotiated Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Moscow (with
cuts of 30-40% in the nuclear arsenals of both sides). The Cold War was
indeed over.
4.2.2. The Gulf War.

The euphoria caused by the drawing down of the Cold War was
dramatically eclipsed by the August 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.
Iraqi control of Kuwait and the danger it posed to Saudi Arabia threatened a
vital USA interest: its oil supplies.
President BUSH strongly condemned the Iraqi action and called for
IRAQ's immediate and unconditional withdrawal. An emergency session
of the UN Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Iraq,
demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
In the days and weeks following the invasion, the UN Security Council
passed 12 resolutions condemning the Iraqi invasion and imposing

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wide-ranging economic sanctions on Iraq. The 12TH RESOLUTION, issued

on November 29, approved the use of force by U.N. member states if
Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991.
On January 12, 1991 Congress granted President BUSH the authority
he sought in the most explicit war-making power given a president in
nearly half a century. War broke out less than 24 hours after the U.N.
deadline. The USA, UK, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait succeeded in
liberating Kuwait with a devastating campaign that lasted slightly more than a
month.
4.3. Bill Clinton.

President BUSH easily won renomination by the Republican Party. On the
Democratic side, BILL CLINTON, governor of Arkansas, defeated a crowded field
of candidates to win his party's nomination in 1992. But the country's deep
agitation over the direction of the economy also triggered the emergence of a
remarkable independent candidate: wealthy Texas H. ROSS PEROT. Although
Perot had not even a remote chance of winning the election, his presence
ensured that economic issues remained at the center of the national
debate.
Every U.S. presidential election campaign was in some ways a battle of
generations. GEORGE BUSH, 68, probably the last president to have served in
World War II, faced a young challenger in BILL CLINTON who, at age 46, had
never served in the military and had participated in protests against the
Vietnam War. BILL CLINTON organized his campaign around another of the
oldest and most powerful themes in electoral politics: change.
On November, BILL CLINTON won election as the 42nd president of the
United States, despite receiving only 43 percent of the popular vote.
In his first year in office, CLINTON proposed major changes in the
USA health-care system that ultimately would have provided health-
insurance coverage to most Americans. Clinton was unable to
overcome widespread opposition to changes in the health-care
system, however, and in a major policy defeat, failed to win passage of his
plan.

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CLINTON promoted peace negotiations in the Middle East, which

bore fruit in important agreements, and in the former YUGOSLAVIA, which led
to a peace agreement in late 1995. He also restored U.S. diplomatic relations
with Vietnam in 1995.
After the Democratic party lost control of both houses of
Congress in Nov., 1994, he was often criticized for vacillating on issues. At
the same time, he was involved in conflict with some radical conservative
Republicans in Congress, whose goals in education, Medicare, and other areas
often were at odds with his own.
By 1996, Clinton had succeeded in characterizing the Republican agenda as
extremist while himself adopting many aspects of it. Republicans passed bills
that often seemed as much part of the president's program as their own: THE
WELFARE BILL that he signed at the end of his term revolutionized the
system. Clinton won re-nomination by his party unopposed in 1996.
At the beginning of 1998, however, ongoing investigations into his past
actions engulfed him in the Lewinsky scandal, and for the rest of the year
American politics were convulsed by the struggle between the president
and his Republican accusers, which led to his impeachment on Dec. 20. He
thus became the first elected president to be impeached. It was apparent,
however, that much of the public, while fascinated by the scandal, held
the impeachment was irrelevant to national affairs.
The late 1990s saw a number of foreign-policy successes and setbacks
for President Clinton. He continued to work for permanent peace in the
Middle East, and his administration helped foster accords between the
Palestinians and Israel in 1997 and 1999, but further negotiations in 2000
proved unsuccessful. SADDAM HUSSEIN increased his resistance to UN
weapons inspections in the late 1990s, leading to USA and British air
attacks in late 1998; attacks continued at a lower level throughout much of
1999 while the issue of weapons inspections remained unresolved.

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4.4. George W. Bush

Bush entered politics in 1993, running for the Texas governorship.
Although he had a tough opponent, he created a clear agenda focused on
issues such as education and juvenile justice and won with 53% of the vote. He
was reelected in 1998, not long before he announced plans to run for president.
His choice of running mate, DICK CHENEY, former secretary of defense during
his father's administration, provided his campaign with the necessary
Washington political experience and gravitas.
The 2000 election between George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore
was one of the closest in the country's history. By early evening on election
night, it was apparent that whoever won Florida would win the election.
Bush's razor thin margin of about 1,200 votes prompted an automatic
recount. On Nov. 11, after the mandatory machine recount revealed that the
two candidates were only a few hundred votes apart, the election began its
tortuous journey through the judicial system. The case ultimately ended
up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Bush officially became the president-elect
on Dec. 13, after the USA Supreme Court reversed a decision by the Florida
Supreme Court to allow manual recounts of ballots in some Florida counties.
With Florida in his column, Bush won the presidency with 271 electoral
votes, just one more than he needed, although he lost the popular
vote by half a million. It was the first time that the Supreme Court, and not
the electorate, determined the outcome of the presidential election.
The top item on Bush's domestic agenda (a $1.35 trillion tax cut over
11 years) was pushed through in June 2001. In his first year in office, BUSH
withdrew the country from a number of international treaties, including
the KYOTO TREATY on global warming, which Bush contended would hurt the
economy, and the 1972 ANTIBALLISTIC MISSILE TREATY, the basis for the last three
decades of nuclear stability with the Soviet Union.
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, irrevocably altered the direction of the
Bush presidency; his primary focus would be the war on international
terrorism. On Oct. 7 the USA and UK began air strikes against

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AFGHANISTAN, after the Taliban government repeatedly refused to surrender

Osama bin Laden (the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks) and other al-Qaeda
leaders. The Taliban collapsed on Dec. 9, but despite this outstanding
military success, Bin Laden remained at large.
Following the war in Afghanistan, Bush designated Iraq as the primary
new threat to American security, shifting the focus away from Osama bin
Laden, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups. He famously labeled Iraq, along
with North Korea and Iran, as part of an axis of evil. Over the course of
2002, President Bush announced that the U.S. foreign strategy of containment
and anticipation was an outdated cold war policy. Many world leaders
expressed alarm at this shift in U.S. policy, which stressed unilateralism rather
than international consensus. In Sept. 2002, Bush addressed the UN,
challenging the organization to swiftly enforce its own resolutions
against Iraq, or else the U.S. would have no choice but to act on its
own. The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution imposing
tough new arms inspections on Iraq, but after three months of inspections
that resulted in modest Iraqi cooperation, U.S. patience ran out: on March 20,
President Bush declared war on Iraq and U.S. troops, along with their
British allies, began bombing Baghdad. By April 9, Baghdad had fallen, and
by May 1, combat was officially declared over.
The war was swift; post-war reconstruction proved far more difficult. The
country was enveloped in violence and chaos, its infrastructure in ruins, and
coalition forces continued to meet Iraqi resistance and fighting. Iraqis strongly
protested against the delay in self-rule and the absence of a timetable to end
the U.S. occupation. Months of searching for Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction (one of the prime reasons the Bush and Blair administrations cited
for launching the war) yielded no hard evidence, and both administrations
and their intelligence agencies came under fire.

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5. Literature in the post-war period.

5.1 Henry Miller (1891-1980).
HENRY MILLER was unhappy with the traditional novels of the 30s and
was much more of a rebel. In the 30s, when the other expatriate writers had
already gone home. Miller stayed on in Paris. Because his novels were
considered obscene, he could not publish them until the 1960s (thanks to a
Supreme Court decision which allowed the publication of both his most famous
books). In fact, they were the antinovels of the 30s, though they were
published in the USA in the 60s.
MILLER’s work is basically autobiographical and most of it showed the
hate he had towards America. He called it an air-conditioned nightmare.
While in Paris, Miller also befriended a woman who was to be a long time
lover and occasional benefactor, ANAIS NIN. Their friendship is
ironically documented by Nin rather than Miller. Her diaries which fill a
multitude of volumes document social engagements, their love affair and a love
affair with Miller's wife, JUNE. These stories were made famous in the 1992
feature film, Henry and June. Although NIN was married they spent several
years as lovers and critics of each others work while Miller was in Paris.
Beginning with the extreme anger at the way things are, MILLER
developed his own vision of own man should live. Laughter, freedom
and joy should be the goals of life. His ROSY CRUCIFIXION trilogy (SEXUS
1949, PLEXUS 1953 & NEXUS 1960), written after his return to America, mixes
serious statements about life with many extremely funny scenes. This trilogy
celebrates freedom for both the mind and the body: “Joy is like a river, it
flows carelessly … we (too) should flow on and through, endlessly like music”.
H. MILLER settled in California’s Big Sur region in the 50s. He became an
important spiritual advisor to a new generation of rebels, the BEATS.
Like many others, karl Shapiro considered himself a Millerite.
His style shows the following features:
- He broke the structure of the traditional novel and developed a genuine
straightforward communication with the reader.
- He introduced provoking elements, especially through sex.

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- He created the basis for a new conception of the art of writing: a

consequence of the art of living (AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS).
- He showed through all his works an extreme anger at the way things
are.
As already commented, during much of his own lifetime, the writing of
HENRY MILLER was branded obscene, his voice too vulgar, too egocentric,
far too truthful and direct for proper society. Nonetheless, we now know
that his style and voice were revolutionary and his use of the obscene and the
irreverent as literary devices to awaken the reader was more celebration than
rebellion. There was no state of human existence, no intimacy that
went unexplored. His recurring themes of suffering, loss and transformation,
drive narratives that stand as testaments to the celebration of life. Miller gave
so completely of himself to his art that it became his life.
5.2. The 40s and 50s

5.2.1. Saul Bellow (1915-19??)
Saul below is the most important of the Jewish American novelists. His
first novel, Dangling man (1944) is about a man waiting to be called into the
army during WW2. Before the war, he had been a Communist, but now he’s
deeply confused. He sits in his room and thinks, as he wants to know what
we are and what we are for. He fails to find any answer. In fact, he
decides that the world is meaningless and that his life has no purpose.
He is happy when he is called into the army, because it will give him its
purpose: he will have to obey orders. The problem is character faces (and fails
to answer) is an existential problem. According to the philosophy of
EXISTENTIALISM, man is completely alone in a meaningless world with God or
absolute moral laws. Thus, we are completely free. However, this is not a
happy freedom. Since we have no “God-given” nature, “free” choices and
actions in life become extremely important, because they determine our nature
as human beings. To sum up, EXISTENTIALIST assumes that we and things in
general exist, but these things have no meaning for us except if we
give them meaning. So, there is no real meaning in any event or group of

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events except what the individual gives it. EXISTENTIATILS writers such as SARTRE
and CAMUS were becoming popular at that time in the USA.
The Victim (1947), BELOW’s next novel, also has an existentialist theme.
The novel’s hero is unhappy with his life in NY City. The tall, faceless buildings
and crowded streets seem inhuman. He feels “alienated” 1, unconnected to the
world around him.
BELOW’s novels became a model for many new writers in the 50s. He had
created for them a new kind of hero and a new kind of descriptive style.
The BELLOW hero lives actively inside his own mind. He has the whole
world (including heaven and hell) inside his own head. He searches for
answers in his mind, rather than for things in the outside world.
However, BELLOW’s descriptive style makes this outside world very real.
He makes us feel as if we are walking the streets and riding the subway along
with the character.
BELLOW’s often reminds us that he is writing about Jewish minds and
Jewish experiences. Mr. Sammler’s Plannet is his saddest and most
completely Jewish novel. Sammler’s experiences in a Nazi concentration
camp and in Modern America make him lose his belief in God. He is a
tragic old man who dislikes everything he sees. He was given the novel prize
for Literature in 1976 for his work.
5.2.2. The Beat generation.

The ill spirit of the 50s was an important theme for the BEAT MOVEMENT.
The BEATS were the new rebel-heroes that were described by MAILER in the
white negro. They called themselves beats because they felt beaten
(defeated) by society and because they loved strong, free beat of jazz
rhythms. Some of them were labeled as HOT BEATS. For them, fear of the
future was part of the illness of a modern society. They lived for the joy
of the present (CARPE DIEM) and enjoyed drugs, sex & wild trips around
the country. Other were labeled COOL BEATS. These, looked for a deeper
spiritual life through Zen Buddhism & other Oriental philosophies.
1
Deprive of [to a persono r group] one’s free wish.

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For all of the BEATS, creating literature was a kind of performance.

It showed other people how deeply they felt. They often shout out their
poetry in coffee houses, with jazz in the background. Clearly, howl
(1956), by ALLEN GINSBERG was written to be shouted out in a coffee house.
GINSBERG uses free-form poetry to praise the free life style. His
poetry almost always has a message: defending drug-taking and
homosexuality or attacking American society and politics. He is still
personally popular among American young people today, but not as popular as
he was in the 50s and 60s. He has always been interested in Zen Buddhism
and uses the Zen idea of “spontaneity” (unplanned action) in his
poetry.
Like GINSBERG, the writing style of JACK KEROUAC is influenced by the
Zen idea of spontaneity. He wrote the novel On the road in a few weeks’
time, but most critics complaint that he should have planned it more carefully.
It is the story of a group of BEATS who traveled westward across America.
Symbolically, it is a trip from the unfree city to the emotional, spiritual
and physical freedom of the West. The style of the book gives us the
feeling that the journey is being made in a great hurry. In later novels, he also
describes people “on the road” to freedom. However, their trips have a deeper
religious meaning. They are “inner journeys” to the meaning of life.
The experiments of WILLIAM BURROUGHS, another BEAT writer, had a
strong influence on American writers in the 60s and 70s. From 1944 to 1957,
BURROUGHS was a heroin addict. This experience creates the basic
structure of his fiction. His novels are a complete dream-world, filled
with terrible nightmares. In Junkie (1953), his first novel, he says that heroine
is not, like alcohol, a mean to increase an enjoyment of life. Heroine is a way
of life. Like other BEATS, he is a spontaneous writer.
BURROUGHS announces here the new direction for American literature in
the 60s and 70s. He says that writers must write about writing. In the 50s,
writers had explored the theme of man’s place in society. In the 60s, however,
writers become more interested in one question “What is writing?”. They
began to experiment with complete new forms of literature: post-realism and

Tema 59:
31
“anti-novel”. Their new kind of writing made readers read in a completely new
way.
5.3. The 60s and the 70s.

The 1960s were years of great cultural excitement and social pain. In the
50s, the Beatles had called for a “revolution in consciousness”. It began among
college students in the 60s, the hippies. They looked for new experiences
through love, love and oriental religions. Many people called it a second
American revolution. By the middle of the 60s, the streets were filled
with angry young people demanding equal rights for blacks and an
end to the Vietnam War.
Some writers of the 60s and 70s look deep into the nature of American
values in order to understand what is happening in their souls. In many ways,
they continue the psychological studies of the 50s. But the 60s and the 70s
were also decades of important experiments in new forms for
American fiction. These experiments developed in 2 different directions. One
direction was the FACTUALIZED NOVEL. Here, the author used the facts of
history to create a new and unusual reality. That is, the “re-telling” of
history by combining real people (like presidents of the USA …) in strange
fantasy stories about a real historic event. In these works, the dividing line
btw the fact and fiction almost disappears.
The other direction of American fiction was POST-REALISM. We can no
longer be sure that there is a “real world” outside our own heads.
Reality is simply our experience, and fiction is only a way of looking at the
world. Realist and naturalist writers used to depend upon psychology,
sociology and the natural sciences to describe reality. But these are also
only ways of looking at the world. The most important writers of the 60s and
70s used this idea in various ways. They make it difficult for us to read
their novels in the usual way. Often, the style and structure is far more
important that the story itself. These writers use “distancing” techniques
to create a space btw the reader and the plot or characters. This
distance helps us remember that we are reading a book, a thing created by an
author, and not reality itself.

Tema 59:
32
5.3.1. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

VLADIMIR NABOKOV also experimented with the Lg and form of fiction.
Like other writers in th 60s and 70s, he does not try to copy reality in his
fiction. He believes that fiction is a kind of reality. His novels are often
quite complicated because they have many levels of meanings.
The story of Lolita is told by a middle-aged man, Humbert Humbert,
while he waits for his murder trial. He describes his passion for a 12-year-
old girl and his murder of a man named QUILTY. However, there is much more
to this novel than its plot. Controversy over a pedophile-subject novel only
inspired a wider readership; sales of the critically-acclaimed book and a
cinematic translation (directed by Stanley Kubrick) enabled NABOKOV to retire
from teaching and concentrate on writing in Montreaux, Switzerland, in 1960.
For all its publicity as a sexual novel, Lolita is less concerned
with physical, and more with verbal, eroticism. Nabokov maintained that
"'sex as an institution'" bored him, and the reader expecting a graphic sexual
tale will be disappointment. Humbert's overwhelming, dull lust for LOLITA
soon turns into an overwhelming, tragic love. Nabokov made his mark on
2
English in other ways, introducing two neologisms to English:
nymphet,3 to describe the young girls Humbert adores, and of course Lolita,
the paragon of this breed.
Regardless of what the reader takes from Lolita, it remains NABOKOV's
most popular novel with readers and scholars alike. It also remains
controversial; a 1997 film version directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jeremy
Irons as Humbert Humbert had difficulty finding a theatrical release in the U.S.
There are two main themes which are dealt with in this novel. On
the one hand, the power and beauty of language. The most noticeable
feature of Lolita, and the main reason for its power, is Humbert
Humbert's gorgeous, tricky, and delightful prose. NABOKOV's primary
motivation for writing so beautifully is to plunge the reader into a state of
“aesthetic bliss”. Humbert's language is enchanting, and the motif of
2
New words
3
Appealing girl

Tema 59:
33
enchantment and fairy tales runs throughout the novel; indeed,

NABOKOV believed that all stories should resemble fairy tales, and the
storyteller should be a kind of enchanter. In addition to this blissful
enchantment, the language of Lolita has a number of other effects.
NABOKOV also subverts the mystery genre by using language as the
main dispenser of clues, rather than action. While some of the verbal
acrobatics are merely for entertainment, the flood of allusions often reveals
clues to Quilty's identity and Humbert's character.
On the other hand, obsessive desires: Far less a mystery than a love
story, LOLITA concerns itself with HUMBERT's obsessive drive for sex, in
Part One, and violence, in Part Two. The two passions oppose each other, as
sex creates life and violence brings it to an end. They are not exclusive to
the first and second part, of course; Humbert frequently wants to kill Haze
in Part One, as he wanted to kill his first wife Valeria, and his lust does not
diminish in Part Two.
HUMBERT usually gets what he wants: he beds LOLITA, HAZE dies, and
he kills QUILTY. However, some of his desires are impossible to achieve,
namely his wish for nymphets never to grow up. Inevitably, he loses his
hold on Lolita as she ages and develops independent desires (among
them, as he finds out later, love for Quilty). Madness often ensues, a
condition Humbert has a history of, as when Valeria cheated on him. He
occasionally concedes his insanity and calls himself a "madman." Humbert also
releases these unsatisfied desires through other forms. He cries several
times in the novel in Lolita's presence, & even does so during
intercourse.
5.4. North-American Drama

In the 19th C, the American theater had many fine actors, but no great
playwrights. The American public demanded entertainment rather than Art.
Most plays were pure melodramas, filled with tears and moral lessons.
The good were always rewarded and the bad were punished. In the bigger
theaters, a lot of money was spent to make the productions as big and
exciting as possible. They often showed fights and sometimes even a huge

Tema 59:
34
earthquake or fire. As technology of theater productions advanced, they

became more and more realistic.
After WW2, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS and ARTHUR MILLER brought new
life into American drama. It was an especially difficult time for artists and
intellectuals. During the 30s, American plays often showed individuals
as “types” (the immigrant, the “average citizen”, the rich man …). Starting in
the late 40s, however, the individual began to be shown in a different manner.
He was an “alienated” person: He had the feeling of not belonging to
any group. He was lonely person, separated from society and other people.
The most famous plays of both WILLIAMS and MILLER take the alienation of
modern man as their basic theme.
5.4.1. Tennessee Williams (1911-83)

In 1945, Tennessee Williams began his career as a Broadway playwright
with the Glass Menagerie. It is a “memory play”: Scenes from the past and
the present are mixed. A small family live in the closed world of a small
apartment: A stressed mother, her shy daughter and her dissatisfied son. The
son, who is the narrator, has left the family and is now remembering the scene.
LAURA, the daughter, has escaped from life into the timeless world of her
imagination. She is one of the many creatures destroyed in WILLIAMS’ plays,
since this is not the only character in his plays who lives in a world of unreality.
WILLIAMS’ characters often express a fear for reality and of the
destructive power of time.
T. WILLIAMS was brought up in the south. We can clearly see
elements of the southern literary tradition in his work. The first of these
elements is the complicated feeling about time and the past. The past is
usually looked upon with sadness, guilt or fear. Like many other Southern
writers, he describes his society as a kind of “hell” of brutality and race
hate. Its sick spirit is present in all his plays.
At first, WILLIAMS appears to be a realistic playwright. In fact, however,
the Lg of his plays is sometimes close to poetry. Situations and characters
are distorted. Like Edgar Allan Poe (also Southern), WILLIAMS specializes in the
Gothic tragedy. His tragedies are not ordinary, everyday tragedies. They

Tema 59:
35
happen in a reality distorted by the imagination of the playwright. They are

Gothic because they show the horrors of the soul. This element
becomes even clearer in Williams’ later plays. In The frosted glass
Coffin (1970), characters are described in the Lg of horror and nightmare.
From his first play through his last, Williams seems to see life as a game
which cannot be won. In one way or another, almost all of his characters are
defeated.
5.4.2. Arthur Miller (1915 - )

The world of Tennessee WILLIAMS is ruled by irrational forces. The world
of ARTHUR MILLER, however, is quite rational. He believes that things
happen for a reason. Unlike Williams, he believes that “life has meaning”.
This makes his plays seem more intellectual than WILLIAMS’. The past has a
direct influence on the present in Miller’s plays, as we live in a world
made by men and past. Often, in his plays, characters learn to take
responsibility for their past actions.
This is the theme of Miller’s first Broadway play, All my sons (1947).
Joe Keller, the main character, learns that the consequences of actions
are as real as actions themselves. During the war, his company made
aircraft engines. Mistakes in some of the engines caused the death of American
pilots. At a tria, Joe successfully escaped responsibility. However, the problem
of his guilt will not go away. He is shown a letter from his dead son. In the
letter, the boy says that he is killing himself because of his father’s
actions. This shock causes Joe to admit his own guilt and realizes that the
dead pilots were, in a way, all my sons. He then shoots himself.
MILLER’s plays often set up a dramatic situation in order to prove
an intellectual point. Miller also uses the technique of giving the audience
information little by little to emphasize the drama of the play. Little by little,
false ideas of reality are erased and the underlying truth comes out.
All of these elements can be seen in Miller’s best-known play Death of a
salesman (1949). WILLY LOMAN, a salesman, cannot understand his lifetime of
failure. His business is failing and his favorite son hates him. The play shows
that all of these failures are caused by false dreams. Clearly, one if these

Tema 59:
E
Evolución política, social y económicca de EEUU desde 1945 y su política
a Internacional. Pa
anorama literario actual en los EEU
UU.
36
false
e dreams are the American dream of
o financial successs. The main
m
charracter ju
udges his alues as a huma
s own va an being by his own
financial suc
ccess. In order
o to succeed, he
e must “se
ell” himselff. However, he
cann
not succeed in selling
g himself. This failure means to him thatt he is a fa
ailure
in liffe and as the play pro
ogresses we
w discoverr why his son,
s BIFF, h
hates him. Ever
since
e he was a little boyy, WILLY ha
ave been filling
f BIFF’ss head witth false dre
eams
of success.
s T
These dreams have
e ruined Biff. In the
t end, BIFF acc
cepts
resp
ponsibility
y for his
s own faiilure, but WILLY never
n wak
kes from
m his
drea
ams, which eventuallly cause him
h to kill himself.
h
Bib
bliograp
phy
USA hiistory: http://od
dur.let.rug.nl/~u
usa/index.htm; http://reference
e.allrefer.com/e
encyclopedia/C/C
ClintonB.html;
http:///www.infopleasee.com/ipa/%A0878291.html; http://www.state e.gov/r/pa/ho/tiime/cwr/17601..htm
Literatture: http://www
w.gradesaver.coom/ClassicNotess/; http://www.pinkmonkey.com
m/booknotes/no
otes1.asp
P B. (1986) An
High, P. n otuline of Amer
erican Literature. Lnd: Longman
n.
Iván Matellaness’ Notes

Topic 59: Summary
37
Summary: Evolución política, social y económica de USA desde 1945 y su política Internacional. Panorama literario actual.
- The cold War was the most imp political issue of the postwar period. It grew out bc of disagreements btw the Soviet Union (SU) & the USA.
♦ USA hoped to share w/other countries its conception of liberty & democracy, against The Russian tradition of a centralized government.
♦ Soviets were particularly concerned about another invasion from the west & demanded defensible borders and sympathetic regimes.
♦ The COLD WAR developed as diffs about the shape of the postwar world created suspicion between the USA & the SU:
___ POLAND: Moscow demanded a government subject to Soviet influence; Washington wanted a more independent & representative one.
TRUMAN had a firm intention to stand on Polish self-determination, but Soviet military forces supported the efforts of the communist party.
♦ George F. KENNAN formulated the policy of CONTAINMENT as the basic USA strategy for fighting the cold war with the SU.
___ KENNAN’s ideas became the basis of the Truman administration’s foreign policy: The main element of any policy toward the SU must be
that of a long-term, patient but firm & vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.
___ Ex: USA helped Greece & Turkey bc communist forces threatened them into a civil war f TRUMAN DOCTRINE: “I believe that it must be
the policy of the USA to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by communists pressures.”
___ In turn, his statements inspired a wave of hysterical anti-communism throughout the country.
___ In CHINA, Americans worried about the advances of MAO ZEDONG and his communist party, who finally seized power in 1949. The
KOREAN WAR brought armed conflict btw the USA & China. The Allies divided Korea in WW2: North controlled by SU & the south by USA.
___ Containment also called for extensive economic aid to assist the recovery of war-torn Western Europe: MARSHALL PLAN
♦ The Cold War shape USA foreign policy & it also had a profound effect on domestic affairs f Anti-communist hysteria of the period.
___ In 1947, the HOUSE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES investigated the film industry to det if communist feelings were reflected.
___ The most vital anti-communist warrior was the Republican Senator JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY fThe witch-hunt was known as MCCARTHYISM.
- HARRY TRUMAN (1945-53 –DMCR-) gave his domestic program the name of THE FAIR DEAL.
♦ As Roosevelt's NEW DEAL, Truman believed that the federal government should guarantee economic opportunity & social stability.
♦ G.I. BILL (1944) helped soldiers back into civilian life: Loans for home-buying and Financial aid for industrial training & education.
♦ 21-POINT PROGRAM: Provided protection against unfair employment practices, a higher minimum wage & greater unemployment compensation.
♦ JACKIE ROBINSON dramatized the racial question in 1947 when he broke baseball's color line and began playing in the major leagues.
___ Truman supported the civil rights movement. He believed in political equality (though not in social equality).
- DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1953-61 –RPBL-) also, as Truman, perceived communism as a monolithic force struggling for world supremacy.
♦ SOCIAL POLICY: ♦ ECONOMIC P: ♦ FOREIGN POLICY:
_ Beat generation, rebelled against conventional values. They asserted _ Eisenhower _ EISENHOWER's basic commitment to
st
intuition over reason. 's 1 priority contain communism remained & he
_ Tennessee singer ELVIS PRESLEY popularized black music in the form was to increased USA reliance on nuclear shield.
of R’n’R, & shocked Americans w/his ducktail haircut & undulating hips. balance the _ VIETNAM WAR: Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese
_ Blacks achieved their goal of abolishing Plessy in 1954 when the budget after communist, sought to liberate his nation from
Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education ruling & years of colonial rule (from France). USA helped
declared unanimously that separate facilities are inherently unequal, & deficits France, but they were defeated and Vietnam
decreed that the separate but equal doctrine could no longer be used in was divided: Ho in the North & Diem, a
public schools (& one year later, not in other places, as buses …) f Roman Catholic anti-communist, in the South.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. _ Eisenhower backed Diem's cause &
_ CIVIL RIGHTS ACT: Federal intrusion bc blacks were not allowed to vote. increased economic & military aid
st
- J. F. KENNEDY (1961-3 – DMCR-): "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." f 1 catholic presi.
_ The overall legislative record of the Kennedy _ The USA broke diplomatic ties with CASTRO’S CUBA just before Kennedy assumed
administration was almost inexistent. He office. The attack at the BAY OF PIGS in 1961 failed.
gained only a modest increase in the _ CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: 1962, Kennedy stood firm when he knew the SU was secretly
minimum wage. installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. It marked a turning point in USA - SU relations.
- JFK had planned an ambitious legislative _ VIETNAM WAR: KENNEDY increased assistance, and sent small numbers of military
program for the last year of his term. But on advisors, but still the struggle between North & South continued.
November 22, 1963, he was assassinated in _ Diem died in 1963 & Guerrillas in the South, VIET CONG, challenged the South
Dallas. Vietnamese government aided by North Vietnam.
- LYNDON B. JOHNSON (1963-9 –DMCR-) a Texan who was the majority leader in the Senate before Kennedy's vice president, was a masterful
politician. JOHNSON took office determined to secure the measures that KENNEDY had sought
_ Johnson begun to use the _ JOHNSON pushed successfully for _ Determined to halt communist advances in S. Vietnam,
name GREAT SOCIETY to a tax cut, & pressed for a poverty JOHNSON made the VIETNAM WAR his own.
describe his reform program: program KENNEDY had initiated. _ Congress allowed JOHNSON to take all measures to repel any
_ CIVIL RIGHTS BILL: Introduced _ MEDICARE: a health insurance armed attack against the USA forces.
by Kennedy, it was the most far- program for the elderly _ Horrible battles shown on television make Americans protest
reaching piece of civil rights _ Medicaid: a program providing their country's involvement in the war & pressured him to
legislation since Reconstruction health-care assistance for the poor. negotiate for peace.
- RICHARD NIXON (1969-74 –RPBL-): NIXON wanted to be re-elected in 1972 bc that would bring Republican congressional majorities. So, NIXON's
team proposed to tap the telephones of the Democratic National Committee in the WATERGATE APARTMENT COMPLEX. When the burglars were
arrested, the administration decided to cover up its involvement ordering the FBI to cease its investigation bc national security was compromised.
The Washington Post continued investigating & the scandal was unfolded, which made NIXON resign in 1974.
♦ ECONOMIC P: ♦ FOREIGN POLICY:
_ Nixon confronted a series of economic problems _ VIETNAM WAR: While slowly withdrawing USA troops, NIXON ordered some of
during his presidency: the most fearful bombing in the war & invaded CAMBODIA to cut off N. Vietnam
a. Inflation rate. b. Dow-Jones stocks fell 36% supply lines, which led to another round of protests & demonstrations.
c. unemployment rate reached 6.6% _ A cease-fire, negotiated by NIXON's national security adviser, HENRY KISSINGER,
d. The war btw Israel, Egypt & Syria provoked Saudi was finally signed in 1973.
Arabia to impose an embargo on oil shipped to Israel's _ This war also ended the Cold War foreign policy consensus (Truman Doctrine).
ally: the USA
st th
- Gerald R. Ford (1974-77 –RPBL-) was the 1 Vice President chosen under the terms of the 25 Amendment.
♦ FOREIGN POLICY: In 1974, an USA-SU meeting resulted in a agreement on further arms control measures. Iván Matellanes’ Notes
Topic 59: Summary
38
- JAMES E. CARTER (1977-81–DMCR-) helped to achieve a big step forward btw Egypt & Israel in which these countries ended a 30 years war.
♦ As a mediator, CARTER met w/Egyptian President ANWAR AL-SADAT & Israeli PM to negotiate a peace settlement. Both leaders returned to
the USA to sign the peace treaty at The White House in 1979.
♦ In 1979 CARTER had troubles with IRAN. After a revolution led by Shiite Muslim leader AYATOLLAH R. KHOMEINI, CARTER admitted the
deposed shah to the USA for medical treatment. Angry Iranians seized the USA embassy & held 53 American hostages for more than a year.
- RONALD REAGAN (1981-89 –RPBL-): For many Americans, the economic, social & political trends of the previous two decades engendered
a mood of disappointment. CONSERVATIVES, long out of power at the national level, were well positioned to exploit this new mood
_ ABORTION: 1973 _ REAGAN favored strict _ NICARAGUA: 1979 communist revolutionaries (Sandinistas) overthrew the
Supreme Court limits on government repressive right-wing Somoza regime. REAGAN’s administration supported the
decision, Roe v. Wade, intervention in the anti-Sandinista resistance.
gave a women the right economy & sought to lower _ SOUTH AFRICA remained intransigent towards the REAGAN's efforts to finish
abort in the early taxes rates, bc they were apartheid. In 1986 the USA Congress overrode REAGAN's veto and imposed a
months of pregnancy. inefficient & impeded set of economic sanctions on SOUTH AFRICA.
This decision was very economic growth. _ SU: REAGANs declared policy was one of “peace through strength”. In 1984,
controversial. _ The power of the private REAGAN softened his rigid position on arms control, and agreed to reduce 50% in
_ Use state power to economic sector was set nuclear arms f (1987): REAGAN & GORBACHEV INTERMEDIATE-RANGE NUCLEAR
encourage classic free. FORCES (INF) Treaty.
family values, restrict _ There was an increase in _ REAGAN’s administration secretly sold arms to Iran trying to free American
homosexuality & the military budget as hostages in Lebanon and that money was diverted to the NICARAGUAN contras
censor pornography. never before. during a period when Congress had prohibited such military aid.
- GEORGE BUSH (1989-93 –RPBL-)
_ 1990, Bush signed a new _ During his first year in office, _ End of the cold war (Unification of Germany & decay of SU regime).
legislation to impose new Bush followed a _ GULF WAR (1990): Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq bc they needed a sea-
federal standards on urban conservative fiscal program. birder to export their oil supplies. USA & UN Security Council strongly
pollution & ensuring physical Yet, with a budget deficit, condemned the Iraqi action & the 12TH RESOLUTION approved the use of
access for the disabled. BUSH had to increase taxes. force by if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait.
- BILL CLINTON (1993-2001 –DMCR-) may be probably remembered by the Lewinsky scandal, for which he was impeached by the republican
congress. However, he acquired the lowest unemployment rate & inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership in history. Furthermore, he
st
proposed the 1 balanced budget in decades & achieved a budget surplus.
_ Clinton proposed major changes in the USA health-care _ Clinton promoted peace negotiations in the MIDDLE EAST (Israel &
system that would have provided health-insurance coverage Palestine), in the former YUGOSLAVIA, which led to a peace agreement,
to most Americans, but a strong opposition to changes in the in N. IRELAND, where he played an imp role in the unification & restored
health-care system make it fail. diplomatic relations with VIETNAM.
- GEORGE W. BUSH (2001-2004 –RPBL-) won unexpectedly after sm months of recounting Florida votes & thanks to a Supreme Court decision.
♦ FOREIGN POLICY: BUSH withdrew the country from a number of international treaties: KYOTO TREATY & ANTIBALLISTIC MISSILE TREATY (the
basis for the last 3 decades of nuclear stability with the SU).
___ Crusade on International terrorism bc of the TWIN TOWERS ATTACK: Attacked AFGHANISTAN (Taliban government) & IRAQ (Sadam Hussein) bc
they were supposed to hide Al Qaeda leaders & Osama Bin Laden.
- NOWADAYS LITERARY PANORAMA IN THE USA:

- HENRY MILLER’s (1891-1980) novels were considered obscene & he could not publish them until the 1960s (Supreme Court decision).
♦ MILLER’s work is basically autobiographical & most of it showed the hate he had towards America. He called it an air-conditioned nightmare.
♦ While in Paris, MILLER also befriended a woman who was to be a long time lover and occasional benefactor, ANAIS NIN.
♦ MILLER developed his own vision of own man should live: Laughter, freedom & joy should be the goals of life.
♦ Miller became an important spiritual advisor to a new generation of rebels, the BEATS.
- The Beat generation called themselves beats bc they felt defeated by society & bc they loved strong, free beat of jazz rhythms.
♦ For the HOT BEATS, fear of the future was part of the illness of a modern society. They lived for the joy of the present (CARPE DIEM) &
enjoyed drugs, sex & wild trips. COOL BEATS looked for a deeper spiritual life through Zen Buddhism & Oriental philosophies.
♦ For all of the BEATS, creating literature was a kind of performance. It showed other people how deeply they felt.
___ They often shout out their poetry in coffee houses, with jazz in the background.
♦ GINSBERG (Howl) & JACK KEROUAC (on the road) were the most important writers of the BEAT MOV.
- VLADIMIR NAVOKOB (1899-1977) did not try to copy reality in his fiction, bc he believed that fiction is a kind of reality.
♦ Lolita is told by a middle-aged man, HUMBERT HUMBERT, while he waits for his murder trial. For all its publicity as a sexual novel, Lolita is
less concerned with physical, and more with verbal eroticism. Lolita became in an obsessive desire to which HUMBER H. cannot resist.
- TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ (1911-83) characters often express a fear for reality & of the destructive power of time.
♦ Williams specializes in the GOTHIC TRAGEDY. His tragedies are not ordinary, everyday tragedies. They happen in a reality distorted by the
imagination of the playwright. They are Gothic because they show the horrors of the soul.
- ARTHUR MILLER: The world of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS is ruled by irrational forces. The world of ARTHUR MILLER, however, is quite rational.
♦ This makes his plays seem intellectual. The past has a direct influence on MILLER’s plays, as we live in a world made by men & past.
♦ MILLER’s plays often set up a dramatic situation in order to prove an intellectual point.
♦ Death of a salesman: The play shows that all of these failures are caused by false dreams. Clearly, one if these false dreams is the
American dream of financial success. The main character judges his own values as a human being by his own financial success.

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Iván Matellaness’ Notes

Publication of S. BELLOW’s THE VICTIM.

-1964: CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.

-1979: Peace treaty btw Egypt and Israel.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

-1981: RONALD REAGAN became the new USA president.

September. SU accepted a unified Germany with full membership in NATO.

-1996: WELFARE BILL.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

2.1.1. Origins of the Cold war.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

The first significant application of the CONTAINMENT DOCTRINE came

in the eastern Mediterranean. UK had been supporting Greece, where

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

Soviet domination of Eastern Europe alarmed the West. The USA

2.1.3. The cold war in Asia and the Middle east.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

2.1.4. Eisenhower and the cold war.

2.1.5. The cold war at home.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

2.2. The post-war economy: 1945-60.

2.2.1. The fair deal.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

2.2.2. Eisenhower’s approach.

2.3. The Culture of the 1950s.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

Western institutionalized religion. The beats went out of their way to

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

3.2. Lyndon Johnson and the Great society.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

On the economic front, JOHNSON pushed successfully for a tax cut,

3.3. International affairs.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

3.3.2. The Vietnam War.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

While slowly withdrawing American troops, NIXON ordered some

3.4. Nixon’s accomplishments and defeats.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

investigation on the grounds that national security was compromised. Although

3.5. Post-Vietnam foreign policy.

SADAT and Israeli Prime Minister MENACHEM to begin to negotiate a peace

3.6. The Counter-culture.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

4. Towards the 21st Century.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

power to encourage its view of family values, restrict homosexual

4.1.1. The economy of the 1980s.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

4.1.2. Foreign affairs.

4.1.2.1. United States & Soviet Union relations.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

After reelection in 1984, REAGAN softened his rigid position on arms

4.1.2.2. Iran-contra and Black Monday.

4.2. The presidency of George Bush.

Iván Matellanes’ Notes

The president also launched a campaign to encourage volunteerism for social

4.2.2. The Gulf War.