The United States dominated global affairs in the years
immediately after World War II. Victorious in that great
struggle, its homeland undamaged from the ravages of war, the
nation was confident of its mission at home and abroad. U.S.
leaders wanted to maintain the democratic structure they had
defended at tremendous cost and to share the benefits of
prosperity as widely as possible. For them, as for publisher
Henry Luce of Time magazine, this was the "American Century."
For 20 years most Americans remained sure of this confident
approach. They accepted the need for a strong stance against the
Soviet Union in the Cold War that unfolded after 1945. They
endorsed the growth of government authority and accepted the
outlines of the rudimentary welfare state first formulated
during the New Deal. They enjoyed a postwar prosperity that
created new levels of affluence.
But gradually some began to question dominant assumptions.
Challenges on a variety of fronts shattered the consensus. In
the 1950s, African Americans launched a crusade, joined later by
other minority groups and women, for a larger share of the
American dream. In the 1960s, politically active students
protested the nation's role abroad, particularly in the
corrosive war in Vietnam. A youth counterculture emerged to
challenge the status quo. Americans from many walks of life
sought to establish a new social and political equilibrium. |
