Liberation Movement In The 1960's

It is not surprising that the movements of the Sixties were global. The “long 1960s,” the period that stretched from 1954 to 1975, followed the second World War of the century; even the name connotes the new scale of the world. People could be interconnected, especially as new technologies could communicate liberal philosophies across the globe. White students living in American cities could read “Third World” liberation theories and find applicability in their own self-styled liberation movements. 1968 in particular was a peak year of student unrest internationally, with protests citing many of the same issues – Vietnam, decolonization, race relations – and accomplishing them through the same tactics. Simultaneous, global movements allowed …show more content…
As the victors of World War II, the US was stronger than any other country and was funding proxy wars with the USSR in order to prevent the spread of communism. By trying to prevent the “Domino Effect” theory, the American government was interfering with developing nations to create capitalist democracies that would be on the American “side” of the Cold War by default. It was easy for many young people to call this activity imperialism; even if the US was not actively claiming territory for a geographic empire, it was adding countries to its ideological empire. The historian Martin Klimke explains that, “in August 1966, the US Information Agency had already grasped the division of public opinion in [West Berlin] with regard to Vietnam, detecting that ‘a noisy left-wing minority opposes everything we do and is impervious to any explanation of US policy.” Furthermore, a German student minority “regarded the Vietcong as resistance fighters against American …show more content…
Though many Americans might classify the work as bordering on imperialist, Edwards says that Kenyans did not: “They had just gotten independence so they were not really worried about someone coming in and taking over. They were just trying to figure out how to man a country and any help was welcome.” That help came in the form of “knowledge, education, and money.” As noted before, Ed Edwards’ economic expertise was well utilized by the Kenyan government, and the success of American help promoted positive reactions to the Foundation’s presence. The Foundation was not the US government and so cannot be used to extrapolate conclusions about American imperialism overall. Instead, the actions by the United States government to free hostages in the Congo provide a picture of American activity in Africa:
The US went in overnight in some big fancy raid and got them out. And all us kids, we went down and we were all celebrating in front of the Embassy on a ‘good job well done.’ It was just sort of different – everyone was very approving of what they did. Of course, it was a heroic thing. But no one thought it was an imperialist move or