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The Arab and Muslim Enemy

Stephen Spector

in Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism

This chapter explores many evangelicals’ hostility toward Arabs and other Muslims. It notes the Christian Zionist core belief that conceding territory will not bring Israel peace. The Palestinians, ... More

This chapter explores many evangelicals’ hostility toward Arabs and other Muslims. It notes the Christian Zionist core belief that conceding territory will not bring Israel peace. The Palestinians, they say, seek only the phased destruction of the Jewish state. Hal Lindsey argues that the Oslo framework and all other political agreements with Israel are only temporary steps toward the Palestinians’ ultimate goal—taking all of historic Palestine from the Jews. Several leading Christian Zionists have argued that the Islamist group Hamas’ upset victory in the Palestinian elections in 2006 revealed the Arabs’ true murderous intentions. Many evangelicals say that all Islamic terrorists, and many or all Muslims, are part of a murderous organic whole intent on world conquest. If Israel falls to the terrorists, they say, the United States will too. World War III has already begun, they argue. A number of experts on terrorism and religion disagree with these propositions. John Hagee notes, however, that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated his intention to wipe Israel off the map and has promised that Islam will strike down the United States as well. A number of evangelicals identify with Winston Churchill as they warn of an approaching Islamofascist threat.Less

“Germany Belongs in the Western World”: Germany and Consensus Politics in America, 1945–1959

Brian C. Etheridge

in Enemies To Allies: Cold War Germany and American Memory

This chapter shows how coalitions formed around different understandings of Germany in the early postwar period. Once decided upon a policy of rehabilitation toward Germany, the American government ... More

This chapter shows how coalitions formed around different understandings of Germany in the early postwar period. Once decided upon a policy of rehabilitation toward Germany, the American government promoted a Cold War narrative of Germany that legitimized America's struggle against the Soviet Union. With the prestige and stature that the U.S. government enjoyed after victory in World War II, the dawning of a new ideological struggle with the Soviet Union, and a widespread fear of communist subversion, an era of consensus settled in that discouraged dissent. While some actors, such as the Federal Republic of Germany and the American Council on Germany, promoted the Cold War narrative based on their respective self-interests, major Jewish groups like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League offered their support, or at least refused to dissent, out of fear of being labeled anti-American or sympathetic to Bolshevism. The only organization that remained faithful to the world war narrative and resolved to stand against the power of the state was the Society for the Prevention of World War III. It was marginalized in the larger society and abandoned by its erstwhile allies.Less

Protestantism in an Age of Anxiety: The Captive and Theological Revivals of Midcentury

Andrew S. Finstuen

in Original Sin and Everyday Protestants: The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, and Paul Tillich in an Age of Anxiety

This chapter illustrates an image contrary to the self-satisfied, placid image of the postwar era—especially the 1950s. Americans in these years, as W, H. Auden, Leonard Bernstein, and others noted, ... More

This chapter illustrates an image contrary to the self-satisfied, placid image of the postwar era—especially the 1950s. Americans in these years, as W, H. Auden, Leonard Bernstein, and others noted, were an anxious people. The sources of their anxiety ranged from the possibility of World War III—including the prospect of nuclear holocaust—to the health of the postwar economy. These abstract worries mingled with the lingering emotional toll of World War II and the outbreak of actual war in Korea just five years after V-J day. Upheavals caused by mass migration to the suburbs, questions about equal citizenship for African Americans, and the timeless search for meaning amid the mystery of existence also occupied the attention of the citizenry. Consequently, halcyon portrayals of American life after the war neglect the palpable cultural uncertainty of the period.Less

The Medium Is the Message, or How Context Matters: The Rand Corporation Builds an Economics of Innovation, 1946–1962

David A. Hounshell

in Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After

This chapter documents and analyzes the development within RAND of a body of pioneering literature in what has come to be known as the economics of technical change. Although undertaken in the 1950s ... More

This chapter documents and analyzes the development within RAND of a body of pioneering literature in what has come to be known as the economics of technical change. Although undertaken in the 1950s and early 1960s to help RAND fight the Cold War and plan for World War III, RAND’s research on technical change remains part of the foundation of knowledge in the economics of technical change. As the chapter shows, this research emerged from a growing sense within RAND that the corporation’s main stock in trade could not effectively deal with technological change. The dynamics of technological change seemed to some RAND researchers central to understanding the dynamics of complex technological systems, such as modern air warfare. The optimization promised by RAND’s systems analysts either would have to be limited to more stable systems with lower orders of uncertainty, or it would have to incorporate a fundamental understanding of technological change into its methods.Less

Wartime Organizational Changes in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations1

in From Hot War to Cold: The U.S. Navy and National Security Affairs, 1945–1955

This chapter discusses the reorganization of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which was spurred by the catastrophic events of World War II. The reorganized Office of the Chief of Naval ... More

This chapter discusses the reorganization of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which was spurred by the catastrophic events of World War II. The reorganized Office of the Chief of Naval Operations that emerged in the fall of 1945 successfully incorporated the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet's control of the Navy's operating forces with the Chief of Naval Operations' responsibilities, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, for coordinating and directing the bureaus and offices of the Navy Department in their efforts to provide the preparation, readiness, and logistic support of the operating forces and shore establishment of the Navy. Because of this new arrangement, the Chief of Naval Operations in December 1945 was far better equipped to handle the manifold responsibilities that would come his way in the challenging postwar years.Less

Introduction

Sherie M. Randolph

in Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical

This chapter gives an overview of the central arguments in Florynce “Flo” Kennedy as well as a brief synopsis of the chapters. Randolph demonstrates the central role of black feminists in post–World ... More

This chapter gives an overview of the central arguments in Florynce “Flo” Kennedy as well as a brief synopsis of the chapters. Randolph demonstrates the central role of black feminists in post–World War II social and political movements. Many scholars, students, and people concerned with political issues assume black women did not engage in postwar feminist actions until after the development of the predominantly white second wave women’s movement. While scholars have begun challenging this historical inaccuracy, most works on postwar feminist radicalism still view black feminism as emerging largely in protest against exclusion by white feminists or in opposition to Black Power. This book demonstrates that black women were present at the creation of postwar feminist movements and articulated a black feminist agenda based on their position as African American women who experienced sexist and racist discrimination in forms that could not be pulled apart and fought separately.Less