Howard Zinn's unique take on this vital period in U.S. history with a new introduction. The postwar boom in the U.S. brought about massive changes in U.S. society and culture. In this accessible volume, historian Zinn offers a view from below on these vital years. By critically examining U.S. militarism abroad and racism at home, he raises challenging questions about this often romanticized period.
Оглавление
Howard Boone's Zinn. Post War America 1945-1971
I. INTERVENTION
B. Guatemala, 1954
C. Lebanon, 1958
D. Cuba, 1961
E. The Dominican Republic, 1965
II. ECONOMIC PENETRATION
III. MILITARIZATION
IV. VIETNAM
I. NATIONALISM
II. THE PROFIT MOTIVE AND THE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT
III. THE FAILURE OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
1. THE BEST OF WARS
2. EMPIRE
3. DEMOCRACY AND PROFIT
4. SOLVING THE RACE PROBLEM
5. JUSTICE
6. BUNKER HILL: BEGINNINGS
About the Author
Отрывок из книги
POSTWAR AMERICA 1945–1971
Howard Zinn
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The political motive was first pointed out by the British scientist P. M. S. Blackett in his book Fear, War, and the Bomb. Blackett wondered about the rush to drop the bombs, and concluded that it was to beat the Russian entrance into the war against Japan, which was scheduled for August 8. The Russians had promised at Yalta and Potsdam to attack Japan three months after victory in Europe, which was May 8. Blackett says: “One can imagine the hurry with which the two bombs—the only two existing—were whisked across the Pacific to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki just in time, but only just, to insure that the Japanese Government surrendered to American forces alone.” Blackett points to an article by Norman Cousins and Thomas K. Finletter, in the Saturday Review of Literature, June 15, 1946, in which they ask why the United States did not first warn the Japanese by a demonstration of the atomic bomb. According to Cousins and Finletter, a demonstration would have taken some preparation, and there was no time for making such arrangements before the Russian invasion:
No; any test would have been impossible if the purpose was to knock Japan out before Russia came in. …
