OpEdNews » Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge"

Tags for This Article:

Populum Tag Cloud Control Panel
	Fine tune your search to access content

Articles	Links
Diaries	Products
Events	All

All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs

From:
Month Day Year

To:
Month Day Year

Alphabet Popularity	Count ON Count OFF
This Level	Sub-levels

Tag(s): Capitalism; Consumerism; Democracy; History; Imperialism; Inequality; Militarism
Add to My Group

June 18, 2008 at 05:37:29

Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge" - Part II

by Stephen Lendman Page 1 of 7 page(s)

www.opednews.com

SAVE FAVORITES

VIEW FAVORITES

View Ratings | Rate It

Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge" (Part II) - by Stephen Lendman

Dowd's book is an essential text for students and adults. It's a critical review of 500 years of history that brought us to today's unprecendented dangers. Part I covered four and one-half centuries through WW II. Part II continues the story to the present.

Part III - Our World Today: Great Possibilities, Worsening Realities - 1950s - 1960s: Monopoly Capitalism, Cold War

Compared to what followed, the 1950s (post-Korean War period) were placid by comparison. Things changed:

-- 1960 - black student sit-downs began at store counters; civil rights agitation revved up;

-- 1961 - Eisenhower warned of a "military industrial complex;" it wasn't heeded, and Cuba foiled the Bay of Pigs invasion; it was the first of hundreds of attempts to remove Fidel Castro; most by assassination, and once it nearly succeeded;

-- 1962 - the Cuban missile crisis; later evidence showed how close the world came to nuclear disaster;

-- 1963 - Martin Luther King marches on Birmingham; his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington; JFK assassinated in November; Vietnam hostilities escalate;

-- 1964 - the Senate passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution "legitimizing" war on Vietnam; only two senators opposed it;

-- 1965 - war intensifies; North Vietnam bombed; Malcolm X assassinated; riots erupt in Los Angeles Watts District;

1966 - US troop buildup escalates;

1967 - Martin Luther King's anti-Vietnam war speech one year to the day before his assassination; American street riots spread;

1968 - Tet turns the war; Martin Luther King assassinated; also Bobby Kennedy; Nixon elected; six and half more years of war;

1969 - Nixon announces "Vietnamization;" promises to end the war; intensifies it instead; secretly bombs Cambodia and Laos; North Vietnam as well; secret peace talks begun between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho; US duplicity highlights them; the Paris Peace Accords signed in January 1973; Saigon falls in 1975; remaining US civilian and military forces withdraw; Vietnam is still recovering; no reparations paid or war criminals prosecuted; the Cold War spreads; capitalism solidifies.

Capitalism is both a social and economic system. Economists Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy called it "monopoly capitalism (monocap)." Its six power components are:

-- giant corporations;

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.

	Contact Author
	Contact Editor
	View Other Articles by Author

Bookmark this page: (what's this?)

(More...)

1 comments

Richard Mynick is a US citizen who, despite the best efforts of the corporate media, noticed something disturbing about how the 2000 election was decided, & felt it augured poorly for democracy.
Richard MynickRichard Mynick is a US citizen who, despite the best efforts of the corporate media, noticed something disturbing about how the 2000 election was decided, & felt it augured poorly for democracy.

I had the honor & privilege of being one of Doug Dowd's

students for several years, in the stimulating classes he so generously & ably taught in the Bay Area. I had the good fortune to read numerous of his books & articles, as well (my favorite was his memoirs -- Blues for America).

Mr Lendman does a fine job here of capturing many essential Doug-isms. It was easy for someone who knows Doug to recognize him in this nicely-distilled summary. For instance, Doug loves the Paul Baran quote about capitalism -- that it teaches us "to want what we don't need, and not to want what we do need." Mr Lendman didn't miss that little detail -- reflecting the fact that he was correctly tuned in & paying close attention to his subject.

by Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1168 comments) on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 4:02:32 PM