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COLD WAR AND BLACK LIBERATION          CHENG

operating during this period will not be covered.  Still, the issues discussed might serve to allow some general conclusions to be drawn regarding the post-war years.

the holy war against communism begins

Advocacy of world peace became advocacy of treason.  Proposals for the banning of atomic slaughters were regarded as the sure mark of the communist.  Warnings of the inevitable depression brought on by cold war armaments, fantastic profits, and shrinking real wages were considered Kremlin propaganda.  Refusal to red bait and witchhunt, to divide and weaken, was thought at tacit confession of Moscow domination.²

For those of us who lived through and participated in the civil rights revolt of the 1960's, the post-war period might have appeared to have had no relevance to the "real" struggle of the 60's.  In reality, however, the post-war period had profound implications for the civil rights movement of the 60's.  This is why an understanding of this historical period is of utmost importance.

When the war ended, Europe was a worn-torn bomb center.  Five years of barbaric warfare had taken its toll.  Something had to be done.  In the words of the noted historians Henry Commager and Allan Nevins:

The task of rebuilding ruined cities and smashed industries was beyond their (European countries) strength.  They needed money-and America seemed to have it all; they needed hope and courage.... One nation could save Western civilization with speed and certainty-but it must show an unexampled vision and generosity. ³ 

The burden of saving Western civilization rested with Uncle Sam.  Rescuing Western civilization meant the preservation of the capitalist mode of production.  Gabriel Kolko, for example, argues that maintaining capitalism was the prime purpose behind the Marshall Plan:

The Marshall Plan consisted essentially of outright grants to industrialized and potentially rich European nations because it was a program to save Western capitalism, an objective so fundamental in importance to the United States that $13 billion appeared a small price to pay for the survival of world capitalism. ⁴

But, at the end of the war neither the American people nor the

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-26 08:35:26