CHAPTER H5: A NEW GEOPOLITICAL DEAL: THE

BIPOLARISATION OF THE WORLD (1945-1973)

I- The birth of the Cold War (1945-1953)

II- The USA in the end of the 1960s: a perfect model for the world?

A- A model of Liberal Democracy

1- A political model

The USA is a federal State, that is to say institutions possessing the three powers are found on the national scale
(called federal) and on the scale of the 50 States constituting the Union (called national). The federal
Government exerts its power on the whole territory (the 50 States and some territories like Puerto Rico). It is in
charge of questions concerning the whole Union (foreign policy, currency, army and war). Every State
possesses its own Constitution that cannot contradict the Constitution of the USA voted in 1787. Its attributions
are wide, indeed every field not expressively reserved for the federal scale (education, transports, trade,
police...). Every State has its election legislation. At its head, there is a Governor and a legislature (bicameral
except in Nebraska). It is the framework of all elections, even federal. Within every State many administrative
subdivisions exist (counties, townships, school boards...), which makes about 78,000 administrative units.

The Federal power is composed of three main institutions:

-the President of the USA is the head of the executive power. He is elected for a 4-year term with a
Vice-President and can only be re-elected once. He is the commander-in-chief of armed forces, negotiates
treaties, nominates diplomats, guarantees the enforcement of laws, nominates an administration, has a veto on a
law voted in Congress except if rejected by 2/3 of the votes.
-the Congress has the legislative power. It is composed of two chambers that must both vote for a law to
pass, except for treaties only voted by the Senate. The House of Representatives is elected for a 2-year term and
consists of 435 members in proportion with States’ demographic weight. The Senate consists of 100 members
(2 by State), elected for a 6-year term, renewed by one-third every two years. The chambers cannot put out of
office the President (that cannot dissolve them) except in case of high treason with the Impeachment.
-the judicial power is exercised by the Federal Supreme Court made up of 9 members nominated for life
by the President.

For every election, most of candidates are invested by the two great parties, the Republicans (Grand Old Party
symbolised by the elephant since 1874) and the Democrats (symbolised by the donkey since 1870), that are
more coalitions of interests than formations based on an ideology and a programme.
More, the organisation of the US powers is linked to the very particular idea that power tends to corrupt and so
delegation of power to representatives must be limited to the strict minimum. Most of the powers must be
exercised on the local scale, explaining the numerous elections existing (sheriffs, judges, heads of any kinds of
boards…) and renewed every year. The Federal State is sometimes seen with defiance all the more so as its
powers have increased since the New Deal time. US people, overall in deepest America, are very jealous of
their liberty, their individualism and their right to decide by themselves about their personal issues and to
defend themselves.
Yet, for the Americans, their regime is the greatest democracy in the world and should be imitated.

2- US values

Finally, the USA bases its democracy on a body of values that unite its citizens coming from very different
geographic areas. The ideas of freedom in every field (religion, expression, bearing weapons), spirit of
enterprise and personal success (myths of the Frontier and of the self-made man), the importance of religion
(faith until Puritanism), patriotism (born of the pride of the constant success of the country) are some elements
that make the prestige of the country in the eyes of its inhabitants and of the world. A set of common practises
also enables to federate the US nation like the respect towards the Star-Sprangled Banner. These values were
reinforced with the Cold War by contrast with the Soviet values: for example, facing the atheist doctrine of the
USSR, President Eisenhower modified the oath to the flag and made the American children pledge allegiance
every morning to “one nation, under God, indivisible”. He also added In God we trust to the $ notes. It
developed a kind of “civic religion”.

Yet, US way of life remains very particular and different from the one of many Western countries, which their
inhabitants do not realise. US society is organised at the local level in communities gathered around a church, in
a neighbourhood socially and/or ethnically homogeneous. Their inhabitants get involved in the maintenance of
their streets and of their schools, in its watching. This organisation, born of the Puritan communities of saints,
enables people coming from different countries with cultural particularisms to integrate while keeping some
difference. But it tends to create a juxtaposed society, more than an integrated one around common values that
are mostly WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant).

B- A powerful capitalist country

1- A thriving economy?

The extraordinary economic success of the country from the 1950s to the 1970s drew the attention of the whole
world. It was the first agricultural and industrial producer in the world, based on TNCs (Ford, GM, ITT) and a
great capacity of innovation (3/4 of Nobel prizes since 1945) and so a huge technological advance which gave it
a virtual monopoly on high-tech (IBM). Nevertheless, the US growth was only of 3-4% a year.

This growth was also based on a dynamic demography: its population rose up from 140 mln in 1945, to 228
mln in 1980. This was overall due to a high birth rate, around 25‰ (baby boom). Indeed, since the 1924
Johnson Reed Act, immigration had been limited with quotas according to the ethnic distribution of the US
population in 1890 and some immigration, which favoured North European migrants and strongly limited South
American ones. Yet, these quotas were abandoned with the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Acts.
The primary sector fell to 5%, the secondary stagnated around 35%, and the tertiary jumped to 60% of labour
force. The feminine work force represented 37% of the labour force in 1970.

2- A society of plenty

Until the 1960s, optimism prevailed in the USA: its society of consumption, the most developed one in the
world, was set up as a global model (“American Way of Life”) thanks to symbols like the first man on the
moon in 1969 or the spreading of household comfort, which are shown in the Western world through movies.
The USA was a society of wealth: the GNP had doubled since 1945, incomes had risen. This enrichment was
revealed by the rise in the number of shareholders, the importance of housing construction and the increase in
the number of cars and in the equipment of television sets and household appliances.
The symbolic character of this period was the “white collar”. In 1960, 75% of the workers went to work with
their own car, almost every household had a TV set, paid holiday generalised. The American Dream is
competed with the new setting of life in the detached house surrounded by a garden in the suburbs.

3- A modern culture

The Americans also consumed more and more cultural products. A mass culture had progressively developed to
entertain most population. The cinema and TV industries multiplied products, the second one developing the
success born in movies, but was more mainstream and politically correct (Bewitched). Westerns were much
appreciated as it recreated the American mythology (John Wayne’s movies; Bonanza, The Wild Wild West).
Espionage movies developed in the framework of the Cold War (Mission: Impossible), as well as space movies
(Star Trek). Yet, the works show a more open society than reality (Captain Kirk kissed in 1968 Lieutenant
Uhura, a black woman). Music changed a lot between the 1950s and the 1960s with the development of
rock’n’roll (Elvis Presley) and pop music (The Beach Boys).
This culture was exported and spread the US model. Yet, this spreading was very different according to
countries: Anglo-Saxon ones got it rapidly, whereas France had to wait sometimes a long time (dubbing) and
often adapted. This gap is wider for TV products.
The strength of the “US model” touched more mass culture than elitist one, even though Hemingway and
Steinbeck had more readers in Europe than in the USA. French students still preferred French intellectuals,
even if there was a strong passion for jazz, cinema, thrillers and comics. Yet, the spreading of US ways of life
still met with traditional cultures, even popular (“musette” only yielded to jazz in the end of the 1950s).

C- The limits of the American Dream

1- McCarthyism

The Cold War caused perturbations in the US democracy. The Korean War made the USA paranoiac (“red
scare”) and enabled McCarthyism. A campaign was launched in 1950 by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy
to expose a Communist “conspiracy” within the State. Carried away by his success, he launched a “witch hunt”
against the “Red”. It caused the execution of the Rosenberg accused of espionage for the USSR in 1953. The
“witch hunt” affected State employees, new immigrants, great industrialists and Hollywood (Charlie Chaplin
emigrated). McCarthy even insulted President Truman who tried to stop excesses that he had first permitted.
Attacked by the Senator and his supporters overall after his relieving McArthur of his command of the Korean
War (the latter had disobeyed and wanted to bring war on the Chinese territory), he was defeated in 1952 by
Eisenhower. Nevertheless, the latter put an end to McCarthy’s intrigues in 1955 because of his attacking the
Army.

2- An unequal and racist society

Besides, US economy was not a perfect success. The US production capacity was so important that the
domestic market could only take it thanks to credit: the society of opulence was a society deeply in debt.
Inflation rose overall with the Vietnam War. There were recession periods when unemployment rose (1953-
1954, 1957-1958, 1960-1961). Agriculture experienced overproduction and farmers’ income was half the one
of other the categories.

More, since the 1960s, social problems had threatened the security of urbanites, showing the strong gap
between rich and poor people. The permanent bankruptcy of towns (NYC) showed the poverty of the
inhabitants of their centre, that the middle classes had left. Poverty overall touched old people, women,
minorities, unskilled workers. The crisis of old industries and agriculture changed some areas in pockets of
poverty (“Old South”, Appalachians).

This society of consumption generated an opposition because of its superficiality: many young people rebelled
against this alienating mass consumption and a puritan, conformist, racist and hypocrite society (musical Hair
with naked scenes and explicit lyrics). In the 1950s, this was symbolised by the phenomenon of bikers (The
Wild One, 1953, with Marlon Brando), James Dean’s movies (Rebel Without a Cause, 1955). In the end of the
1960s, the hippie movement contested the establishment. Successor of the Beat Generation (Jack Kerouac, On
the Road, 1948), it also had a religious inspiration, being a kind of protestant revival, typical of US religiosity,
even if it advocated free sex and the use of drugs (“being high on Jesus”). As a political movement, it launched
episodes of contestation like the riots in Berkeley (University of California) after the 1964 Free Speech
Movement that ended in violence in 1969 with the intervention of the National Guard (sent by the Governor of
California, Ronald Reagan): it developed progressist, even socialist and ecologist ideas, as well as peaceful
ideals (“Flower Power”, fight against the Vietnam War and the continuation of the Cold War). It supported the
Civil Right Movement. As an artistic movement, it generated a psychedelic aesthetics and huge meetings (love-
ins) and concerts (notably around San Francisco): Monterey International Pop Music Festival in June 1967
(Summer of Love) with Jimmy Hendricks, the Who, Joan Baez…, Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August
1969 in the State of New York.
This criticism of the US society of consumption also spread in the world and generated much imitation and
consumption too…

So, poor people and minorities were on the margins of society. For Black people, segregation was still a reality
in the Southern States, even if, for example, in 1954, the Federal Supreme Court declared that “separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal”. On the 1 st of December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa
Parks, a seamstress, refused to obey a bus driver’s order that she gives up her seat (though in the coloured
section) to make room for a white passenger. She was arrested for this. After that, she became an icon of the
Civil Rights Movement in which she took part with Martin Luther King, a Baptist pastor. It consisted then in
non-violent actions like boycotts, sit-ins, marches like the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on the
28th of August 1963 during which King claimed his famous speech “I have a dream”. The NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) born in 1909 was also acting for the end of
discrimination.

D- The search for a political renewal

Aware of this deterioration of the US model (despite Truman’s ‘Fair Deal’ just after the war), Presidents JFK
(1961-1963) and Johnson (1963-1968) tried to solve the problem. JFK wanted to stop the laissez-faire policy
and fought against poverty. He launched the conquest of a ‘New Frontier’, that was within the country and had
to enable to integrate to the US model the 40 mln poor people, to eradicate racial segregation, to discover
techniques to bring man on the Moon and to develop the Third World. The Congress only accepted a part of his
reforms (the rise of minimum wage, the extension to new beneficiaries of social security, the federal assistance
for regions in difficulty, a “space program”...). JFK abolished segregation in transports between States,
nominated Black people in positions of great responsibility, imposed by force the entrance of Black students in
the Universities of Mississippi and Alabama.
His successor, Lyndon Johnson carried on this “war on poverty”. Being a better politician, he had the Congress
vote the laws refused to JFK: for Black people, no more segregation in public services and in jobs (Civil Right
Act of 1964), Voting Rights Act in 1965, no more segregation for housing (Civil Right Act of 1968); Medicare
(for people of more than 65 years old), Medicaid (for poor people). He proposed a new program called the
“Great Society”. He got the federal State employees to write down black people on election lists. All this set of
measures brought the number of poor people down to 24 mln. But the Vietnam War’s costs caused the sacrifice
of the “Great Society”.

But, the situation of minorities had not really improved in 1968. The migration of Black people to the North
increased and did not help for their integration: the poor newcomers crammed in the damaged buildings of town
centres. If there was no official segregation, there was a de facto separation because white people fled the
neighbourhoods in which black people settled. In 1970, only 27% of Black children attended integrated schools
(racially-mixed) despite the practise of busing settled by Johnson to drive them to distant integrated schools.
The income of Black people was half the one of White people and their level of unemployment twice.
So, after Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968, Black people turned away from integration and
adopted the separatist and violent programme of the “Black Muslims” with Malcolm X or of the “Black
Panthers” with Angela Davis. One of their icons was boxer Cassius Clay that had converted to Islam in 1961
and changed his “slave name” in Muhammad Ali in 1964, was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War.
Riots multiplied in the 1970s. Other racial minorities began to revolt too: the Indian community had occupied
the Island of Alcatraz for 19 months in 1969.

The 1968 presidential election took place in this context of violence. The Democratic candidate, Robert
Kennedy, was assassinated in June. Republican Nixon was elected thanks to “the non-poor, the non-young, the
non-Black, the middle-class”.

III- The USSR until the end of the 1960s : a true model ?
 IV- From the peaceful co-existence to the Détente (1953-1973)

Conclusion: the cold War, a total war?

The Cold War can be considered as a total war like the two WWs and as their continuation in their methods:
-it had mobilised populations for a long time, more than 45 years. Of course, it is not for a direct conflict
between the two superpowers throughout the period; there was no perpetual global front. Indeed, there were
two kinds of confrontation:
-indirect wars through interposed allies: Middle East conflicts (Israel-Arab wars), Korean
War (USA-North Korea/China), Indo-China War (France-Vietminh) and Vietnam War (USA-Vietcongs),
guerrilla wars in South America (many initiated by the Che), civil wars in Africa (FRELIMO-COREMO),
Afghan War (USSR-mujahideen), Iran-Iraq War. During these wars, soldiers were truly mobilised and some
died: 480 000 GIs in Korea with 34 000 dead. Finally, many operations were led by the CIA: overthrow of
Iranian PM Mossadegh in 1953, assassination of Congolese PM Patrice Lumumba in 1960…;
-direct confrontations between the USA and the USSR, but that did not lead to war:
Berlin Blockade, Berlin Wall, Cuban Crisis Crisis of the Euromissiles, arms race, Olympic Games, space
conquest. Diplomatic confrontation was much developed: meetings, drawing closer to the enemy of your enemy
(China for the USSR)/travels, negotiations (Cuban crisis) notably for disarmament (SALT, START), bluff
(SDI);

-it mobilised economy: Marshall Plan vs COMECON, huge budget for research (space) and arms race
(industrial-military complex), blockade vs airlift in Berlin, embargo to make the enemy yield (Cuba, Iran),
“linkage” policy/US wheat import in the USSR. Indeed, the US economy power and 1 st rank domination was a
strong weapon against its enemies;

-civilians were also touched by the conflict:

-during wars, there were home fronts (children kamikazes, guerilla wars) and civil
casualties (napalm in Korea and Vietnam, anti-personnel bombs, CIA Phoenix program that “neutralized”
80 000 members of the Vietcong; Sabrah and Shatilah), occupied territories (Palestine), slaughters in civil wars
(Pol Pot);
-outside wars, civilians were sometimes touched: “Red Scare”/McCarthyism and its
“witch hunt” (vs civil servants, Hollywood), fallout shelters multiplied in the USA;

-people’s minds were also mobilised through propaganda (home front).