s a confusing welter of American events between 1945 and 1960. World War II had ended. Truman was President. The Alger Hiss case aroused complicated questions of loyalty. Arms escalation and the threat of the atomic bomb loomed rather heavily. Senator Brien McMahon, Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, asked in a speech to the chamber, "How is it possible for free institutions to flourish or even to maintain themselves in a situation where defenses, civil and military, must be ceaselessly poised to meet an attack that might incinerate fifty million Americans--not in the space of an evening, but in the space of moments?" (p. 136). Albert Einstein went on television and said, "Radioactive poisoning of the atmosphere and hence annihilation of any life on earth has been brought within the range of technical possibilities..."(p. 137).
Goldman describes the events of the Korean "conflict" and notes its differences from the previous world wars. The United States was moving towards containment. All-out war was not something that suited the politics of the day, but the American people had adjustments to make and moral conflicts to face, both within themselves and with each other, regarding this new type of war. It seemed as if American unity could be experienced only if there was a common enemy.
An interesting result of the Korean war was racial integration in the military forces, several years before it was an issue in civilian life. When the war began, the Air Force was largely integrated. Segregation patterns soon changed in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The infantry training base at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, was one of the first to ignore the color line. Draftees were pouring in at the rate of a thousand a day, and it was too cumbersome to separate platoons into black and white (p. 184).
Growing concerns about the intermingling of crime and politics came to public view. The colorfu...