Eric Beck wrote:
>
> On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Ricky Page <rfpage2008 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > In the end the
> > only reason for the allowance of any change in a progressive way, especially
> > here in the USof A was the total war against the Soviet Union and it's allies.
>
> Really? So workers, wildcat strikers, beatniks, hippies, SDSers,
> housewives, civil rights activists, feminists, queers, transgendereds,
> Chicanos, Black Panthers, the disabled, and students had absolutely
> nothing to do with it? Got it. Thanks for the history lesson.
I agree with Eric -- but irony here suppresdses some significant complexity. It's hard to know just where to start to unravel that complexity.
The Kennedys tried hard to suppress the March on Washington & in general to 'quiet' Black activityin the South. But they didn't use _all_ the force that, given U.S. popular opinion at the time (pretty racist) they might have. The existence of the Cold War did enter into this 'moderated' oppresdsion. Wojtek's letter gives the reasons the power elites _granted_ (partially & grudgingly) the demands being made on them. But his letteer, as you say, completely overlooks the _existence_ of the demands and the _force_ they generated. And this is nonsensical. It took the total hullabaloo of the '60s (and as you note, the preliminary noises 'given off' by the '50s (beatniks) to mount those demands and make them visible. That was the main element. The factors Wojtek lists affected elite response to that hullabaloo. It is totally inaccurate to make the cold war the _primary_ cause as Wojtek's letter seems to do.
Carrol