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other parts of the world. This, despite
the
fact
of increasing danger of more
brush-fire wars, "Vietnams," or even a
heating up of the situation in Korea.
Communism
1960 opened with a new Communist
headache on America's own doorstep.
The Castro regime carne into power in
1959, by revolution, and
U.
S.-Cuban
relations quickly worsened.
In May, 1960, the U-2 spy plane shot
clown over Russia, with Francis Gary
Powers in command, exploded the
scheduled Khrushchev-Eisenhower sum–
mit meeting. President Eisenhower as–
sumed the blame.
In April, 1961,
U.
S.-supplied Cuban
exiles attempted an invasion of Cuba,
resulting in the infamous "Bay of
Pigs"
fiasco. Failure of the venture was a blow
to U. S. prestige because of deep CIA
A U. S. infantryman
shouts encouragement
as a line...of
bis com–
rades return the fire of
Viet Cong snipers.
Basically unheard-of as
the decade started,
Vietnam was, by
1969,
a major cause of divi–
siveness and confusion
in the U. S.
At.sodoted Ptess Rodiopholo
lrom
Soison
involvement. Other U. S. agencies were
accused of being involved.
The East-West crisis deepened in Au–
gust, 1961, when the East German au–
thorities sealed off East Berlín with a 5-
foot high concrete wall along most of
the 25-mile border between East and
West Berlín.
In late 1961, the first big cracks of
the widening Soviet-China rift started
to show.
1962 was the year of the big scare.
In October, the
U.
S. and Russia
carne close to war after U. S. reconnais–
sance photos discovered jet bombees and
Soviet missile bases being set up in Cuba.
The U. S. put a naval blockade into
effect against arms shipments to Cuba,
and President Kennedy warned the
Soviets that any nuclear missile attack
on any Westero Hemisphere nation
from Cuba would be coosidered an
attack on the U. S., "reguiring a full
9
retaliatory response upon the Soviet
Union." The Soviets backed clown and
removed the missiles.
In October, 1964, Soviet Premier Ni–
kita Khrushchev was stripped of power
as top leader of the Soviet Government
and banished to politi.cal obscurity. Com–
munist leadership was assumed by
Leonid Brezhnev and Aleksei Kosygin.
By mid-1966, Communist China was
in the throes of a disruptive emotional
binge called the "Cultural Revolution."
The cultural revolution met with in–
creasing resistance and ended in severe
confrontations with peasant militias. By
1967, China was fragmented by strug–
gles between pro-Mao and anti-Mao
forces.
The world was jolted in August,
1968, when the Russians invaded
Czechoslovakia in order to halt the
Western-leaning liberalization policy of
the Alexander Dubcek regime.
Beginning in March, 1969, Soviet
and Red Chinese troops clashed at vari–
ous spots along their common border in
the Far East. Both sides beefed up
border bastions. China became espe–
cially concerned that her nuclear facil–
ities in Sinkiang provinc.e might be de–
stroyed.
lt is dear that Soviet advances toward
Western Europe in general, and West
Germany in particular, in late 1969,
were obvious manifestations of Kremlin
attempts to patch up its Western front
in order to maintain a free hand for
dealing with the Chinese.
Look for much closer ties between
East and West Europe during the Sev–
enties- possibly a pseudo-peace which
could crack at any moment.
Democracy's Problems
The Sixties were a decade of dis–
illusionment for those having faith in
the democratic process as a stabilizing
política! force in the world.
The years 1960-1969 saw a vast num–
ber of dictatorships and military govern–
ments seize power through
cottps d'etat
around the world - bloody and blood–
less. Many of the succumbing nations
were the hopeful newly independent
states carved out of the great colonial
empires.
An example was Africa. In 1942