The World Since 1914

Part 7​—1960-1969 The 1960’s—​A Period of Turbulent Protest

THE plane crashed into the ground, taking with it any hopes that Cold War tensions could soon be relaxed. It was a United States U-2 spy plane, and it was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology and a promise from the United States that such flights cease. Dissatisfied with President Eisenhower’s answer, he protested by refusing to attend the East-West summit meetings scheduled to begin in Paris on May 16.

It was not an auspicious beginning to the 1960’s. But it was typical of a period that would be characterized by a spirit of protest and an inability of people to agree​—to agree about almost anything.

Despite Peace, Three Kinds of War

The Cold War was still very much alive. Subsequent events would keep it so. In August 1961 the Soviets cut off their occupation zone in Berlin from the Western sectors by erecting the Berlin Wall. A year later they attempted to install Soviet missiles in Cuba. This failed in the face of a U.S. naval “quarantine,” or blockade. Student unrest in Czechoslovakia helped lead to the formation of a new government. But in 1968 the Soviets intervened, lest government reforms turn the so-called Prague Spring into a full-blown summer.

Besides suffering the chill of a Cold War, the world also experienced the heat of the more “normal” kind of war. At least 54 conflicts had started between 1945 and 1959. Now during the 1960’s another 52 would be added, including the Congolese and Nigerian civil wars, the Six Day War of the Middle East, and the war in Vietnam.a

The 1960’s, however, saw the beginning of a third kind of war. Up until then the world had been relatively calm on the social or civilian level. But now youngsters of the postwar generation were coming of age. Not liking the world they saw, and feeling its problems were being dealt with ineffectively, they embarked upon a war of their own​—a war of protest.

Students on the March

Many a mile was walked in “ban the bomb” marches. In fact, almost anything that was deemed worthy of a protest warranted a march, a student strike, a sit-in, or an act of civil disobedience. A majority of young people apparently supported this new kind of warfare, at least in principle. A poll of German youths taken in 1968 showed 67 percent in favor, leading the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel to comment: “When it comes to marching, most of them are willing to lend not only their hearts but also their feet and, if need be, their fists.”

This was demonstrated in over 20 German cities during the 1968 Easter weekend, when thousands pounded the pavement in protest. Two persons died; hundreds were injured. This was an outgrowth of protests a year earlier that were directed against the Shah of Iran and his regime. At that time, on June 2 in Berlin, clashes between protesters and police resulted in one death and many injuries.

With good reason author William Burroughs said in 1968: “The youth rebellion is a worldwide phenomenon that has not been seen before in history.” In that year student unrest led to a general strike in France that almost brought down de Gaulle’s government. At the beginning of the decade, student protest actually had brought down a government, South Korea’s, although at the cost of over 200 lives. And as regards protesting students in Japan, the book 1968 Weltpanorama says: “Japan scarcely differs from America and Europe. At the most, Japanese students are only somewhat more imaginative than their fellow students in Berkeley, Paris, or Frankfurt.”

“Make Love, Not War”

Much of this protest was directed against war​—war in general and the war in Vietnam in particular. In 1946 a war of independence against the French colonial power had broken out in Indochina, of which Vietnam was a part. Eight years later a cease-fire agreement divided the country, a temporary arrangement until elections could be held to reunite it. One part came under communist, the other under noncommunist control. As in Germany and Korea, the superpowers found themselves involved in a Cold War being fought across a politically expedient border.b

Cold War tension finally erupted into open warfare in Vietnam. At first the United States supplied the south with only military aid. But during the 1960’s, it started sending troops, reaching a peak of over half a million before the decade was over. The war became like a festering sore that refused to heal. “In May [1965] a teach-in attended by twelve thousand students [in the United States] turned into an antiwar rally, and set the pattern for the massive campus antiwar demonstrations that marked the rest of the decade,” says Charles R. Morris in his book A Time of Passion​—America 1960-1980. To emphasize their stand, thousands of young men burned their draft cards. Some went even further, says Morris, giving two examples of men who “publicly burnt themselves to death to protest the war.”

“I Have a Dream”

In the war of protest, students may have taken the lead, but they were not alone. For example, the U.S. civil-rights movement was supported by blacks and whites of all ages under its leader, Southern Baptist preacher Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1963 over 200,000 people marched on Washington, where King inspired them with his “I have a dream” speech.

A measure of success was achieved when the U.S. congress responded with what has been called “the greatest outpouring of human rights legislation in this century.” And personal success came when King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

Everyone Doing His Own Thing

Young people also showed their rejection of the system by rejecting its conventional dress and grooming standards. “The fashion revolution that began on London’s Carnaby Street in 1957,” explains The New Encyclopædia Britannica, “led to the permissive, youth-oriented, and anti-establishment fashions of the 1960s.” For many women it was the day of miniskirts and hot pants; for men, of beards and long hair; and for both, of unisex fashions and of the generally disheveled appearance that later became known as the hippie look.

Some of the music of the day also promoted the spirit of protest by encouraging the use of drugs and by condoning permissive sex and homosexuality. Rock stars and pop singers became idols, dictating both fashions and conduct. Communal living became popular. This and other life-styles formerly considered unacceptable were now viewed as being acceptable alternatives. All of this was to reap a sad fruitage in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Aggiornamento and the “Jesus People”

A dictionary defines aggiornamento as “the policy of updating or modernizing Roman Catholic doctrines and institutions, adopted as one of the goals of the Second Vatican Council 1962-1965.” Pope John XXIII embarked on this policy partially to blunt charges that the church was old-fashioned and partially to neutralize the effects of the growing tendency of some to protest openly against church teachings and practices. This even included noted Catholic clergymen. German theologian Hans Küng, for example, was invited to Rome to clarify his unorthodox views but refused to go.

The spirit of religious protest was not limited to attempts to revamp conventional religions. Many young Europeans and Americans simply scorned these groups altogether, turning to new sects or to Asian philosophies. Groups like the Divine Light Mission, Hare Krishna, and the Children of God got their start during the 1960’s and grew in popularity.

From Protest to Violence and Terrorism

The spirit of protest revealed a worldwide breakdown in respect for authority​—parental, educational, governmental, and religious. It fostered a spirit that frequently led to violence, of which there has been no lack since 1914, either on or off the battlefield.

Recall some of the events that characterized the violent 1960’s: Patrice Lumumba, Congolese symbol of African nationalism, and South African Prime Minister Hendrik F. Verwoerd both brutally murdered; President Ngo Dinh Diem of the Republic of Vietnam slain during a coup; the United States lost by assassins’ bullets three leaders within less than five years: President John F. Kennedy, civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

This defiance of authority, which did not shrink back from employing violence to achieve the goals of its protest, helped lay the basis for terrorism. In fact, author and political analyst Claire Sterling says that modern terrorism began in 1968, “clearly the year when a generation born after the last world war declared its own war on society.”

Looking to the Heavens for Help

Might conquering the heavens help conquer the problems on earth? Some evidently thought so. Space exploration proceeded unabated, caught up in the Cold War, with leadership in the race seesawing between East and West. From 1961, when the Soviets placed the first man in earth orbit, until 1969, when the United States landed the first man on the moon, the world was dazzled by one space accomplishment after another.

As the decade drew to a close, Collier’s 1970 Year Book commented: “It seems quite appropriate that 1969, the year in which man first walked on the moon, is also the year to see the biggest boom in astrology . . . that this planet has ever known. The Age of Aquarius . . . [when] brotherhood will reign on earth, may or may not be upon us.”c

Apparently more and more people were looking to the heavens for help. And to the extent that putting earth satellites into orbit made possible almost instantaneous communication between continents, to that extent the physical heavens brought nations closer together. But they did not bring them closer together in solving world problems. The nations were as far apart as ever, still “not open to any agreement.”​—2 Timothy 3:1-3.

Why? Because by its very nature, the spirit of protest​—the spirit of the 1960’s—​cannot unite. It divides. To solve world problems, men must be at unity. To achieve this unity, they must look for help, not from the physical or astrological heavens, but from the heavens of God’s government.

Jehovah’s Witnesses​—who by 1969 had increased by 48 percent over their average number in 1960—​were doing just that. How grateful they were that a timely explanation of Romans chapter 13, dealing with Christian subjection, had enabled them to avoid getting caught up in the spirit of turbulent protest that characterized the 1960’s!​—See The Watchtower, November 1, November 15, and December 1, 1962.

As the 1960’s drew to a close, Jehovah’s Witnesses were busy talking, not about an Age of Aquarius, but about an age under God’s Kingdom when “brotherhood will reign on earth.” Would they live to experience it personally? Will you? Do not miss the concluding article of the series “The World Since 1914” in our next issue: “As the World Disintegrates, Let Your Hope Grow Brighter!”

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 25]

Other Items That Made the News

1960​—Severe earthquakes strike Morocco and Chile

1963​—Cyclone and flood kills 30,000 in East Pakistan

1966​—Cultural Revolution begins in China

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Hippie movement in the 1960’s

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UPI/​Bettmann Newsphotos

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Antiwar rally in New York

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UPI/​Bettmann Newsphotos