1968: The World Traniformed 1968: The World Traniformed presents a global perspective on the tumultuous events of the most crucial year in the era of the Cold War. By interpreting 1968 as a transna tional phenomenon, authors from Europe and the United States explain why the crises of 1968 erupted almost simultaneously throughout the world. Together, the eighteen chapters provide an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the rise and fall of protest movements worldwide. The book represents an effort to integrate international relations, the role of the media, and the cross-cultural exchange of peo ple and ideas into the history of 1968. That year emerges as a global phenomenon because of the linkages between domestic and international affairs, the powerful influence of the media, the networks of communication among activists, and the shared opposition to the domestic and international status quo in the name of free dom and self-determination. Carole Fink is a professor of history at the Ohio State University in Columbus. Philipp Gassert is a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washing ton, D.C. Detlef Junker is a professor of history at the University of Heidelberg and the director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. PUBLICATIONS OF THE GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE WASHINGTON, D.C. Edited by Detlef Junker with the assistance of Daniel S. Mattern 1968: The vvorld Tran.iformed THE GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, D.C. The German Historical Institute is a center for advanced study and research whose purpose is to provide a permanent basis for scholarly cooperation among historians from the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States. The Institute conducts, promotes, and sup ports research into both American and German political, social, economic, and cultural his tory, into transatlantic migration, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and into the history of international relations, with special emphasis on the roles played by the United States and Germany. Recent books in the series Peter Graf Kielmansegg, Horst Mewes, and Elisabeth Glaser-Schmidt, editors, Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Emigres and American Political Thought After World War II Dirk Hoerder andJorg Nagler, editors, People in Transit: German Migrations in Comparative Perspective, 1820-1930 R. Po-chia Hsia and Hartmut Lehmann, editors, In and Out of the Ghetto:]ewish-Gentile Relations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany Sibylle Quack, editor, Between Sorrow and Strength: Women Refugees of the Nazi Period Mitchell G. Ash and Alfons Sollner, editors, Forced Migration and Scientific Change: Emigre German-Speaking Scientists and Scholars After 1933 Manfred Berg and Geoffrey Cocks, editors, Medicine and Modernity: Public Health and Medical Care in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany Stig Forster and Jorg Nagler, editors, On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861-1871 Norbert Finzsch and Robert Jiitte, editors, Institutions of Confinement: Hospitals, Asylums, and Prisons in !-*stern Europe and North America, 1500-1950 David E. Barclay and Elisabeth Glaser-Schmidt, editors, Transatlantic Images and Perceptions: Germany and America Since 177 6 Norbert Finzsch and Dietmar Schirmer, editors, Identity and Intolerance: Nationalism, Racism, and Xenophobia in Germany and the United States Susan Strasser, Charles McGovern, and Matthias Judt, editors, Getting and Spending: European and American Consumer Societies in the Twentieth Century Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman, and Elisabeth Glaser, editors, The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment After 75 Years 1968: The World Transformed Edited by CAROLE FINK, PHILIPP GASSERT, and DETLEF JUNKER GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE Washington, D. C. and CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 lRP, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http:/ /www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © The German Historical Institute, Washington, D. C., 1998 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1998 Printed in the United States of America Typeset in Bembo 11/13 pt. in QuarkXPress [BB] A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 1968 : the world transformed I edited by Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert, and Detlef Junker. p. cm. - (Publications of the German Historical Institute) Papers from a conference organized by the German Historical Institute. Includes index. ISBN 0-521-64141-1 (hardcover: alk. paper). - ISBN 0-521-64637-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. World politics - 1965-1975 - Congresses. I. Fink, Carole, 1940- II. Gassert, Philipp. III. Junker, Detlef. IV. German Historical Institute (Washington, D.C.) V. Series. D839.2.A17 1998 909.82 - dc21 98-23253 ISBN 0-521-64141-1 hardback ISBN 0-521-64637-5 paperback Contents Preface page IX List of Contributors XI Introduction Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert, and Detlef] unker 1 PART ONE TET AND PRAGUE: THE BIPOLAR SYSTEM IN CRISIS 1 Tet and the Crisis of Hegemony George C. Herring 31 2 Teton TV: U.S. Nightly News Reporting and Presidential Policy Making Chester J Pach Jr. 55 3 The American Economic Consequences of 1968 Diane B. Kunz 83 4 The Czechoslovak Crisis and the Brezhnev Doctrine Mark Kramer 111 5 Ostpolitik: The Role of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Process of Detente Gotifried Niedhart 173 6 China Under Siege: Escaping the Dangers of 1968 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker 193 PART TWO FROM CHICAGO TO BEIJING: CHALLENGES TO THE DOMESTIC ORDER 7 1968 and the Unraveling of Liberal America Alan Brinkley 219 8 March 1968 in Poland ]erzy Eisler 237 9 May 1968 in France: The Rise and Fall of a New Social Movement Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey 253 10 A Laboratory of Postindustrial Society: Reassessing the 1960s in Germany Claus Leggewie 277 11 The Third World Arif Dirlik 295 Vll vm Contents PART THREE "ASK THE IMPOSSIBLE!": PROTEST MOVEMENTS OF 1968 12 The Revolt Against the Establishment: Students Versus the Press in West Germany and Italy Stuart]. Hilwig 321 13 The Changing Nature of the European Working Class: The Rise and Fall of the "New Working Class" (France, Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia) Gerd-Rainer Horn 351 14 The Women's Movement in East and West Germany Eva Maleck-Lewy and Bernhard Maleck 373 15 1968: A Turning Point in American Race Relations? Manfred Berg 397 16 The Revival of Holocaust Awareness in West Germany, Israel, and the United States Harold Marcuse 421 17 The Nuclear Threat Ignored: How and Why the Campaign Against the Bomb Disintegrated in the Late 1960s Lawrence S. Wittner 439 EPILOGUE 18 1968 and 1989: Caesuras, Comparisons, and Connections Konrad H. ]arausch 461 Index 479 Preface This book grew out of a conference organized by the German Historical Institute (GHI) on May 23-5, 1996, in Berlin. For three days, thirty-five scholars from nine countries became acht-und-sechziger (sixty-eighters), not on the streets and barricades but in lively debate over the events and signif icance of the momentous year 1968. This book consists of revised versions of many of the original papers as well as entirely new essays that comple ment our overall theme. I thank all of the authors and also those who par ticipated in the conference but whose work could not be included here. I am grateful to Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (Free University Berlin), Luisa Passerini (European University Institute, Florence), Keith A. Reader (Uni versity of Newcastle), and Dieter Rucht (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin) for chairing the various sessions and for guiding us through spirited discus sions. In Berlin, the Wissenschaftszentrum afforded a comfortable setting for three days of intensive debate. I thank Friedhelm Neidhardt, the center's director, and his dedicated staff - Birgit Hahn, Britta Heinrich, Ilse Kischlat, Dietmar Kremser, and Burckhard Wiebe - for hosting the con ference and helping with its organization. Dieter Senoner of the mayor's office kindly welcomed us to Berlin at a reception at the Rotes Rathaus. Anneke de Rudder, who took us on a "1968 Walking Tour" through the German capital, gave us the opportunity to visit the key sites of that his toric year. At the GHI, I thank Barbel Bernhardt, Christa Brown, Dieter Schnei der, and Barbel Thomas - all of whom were involved in the organization before, during, and after the conference. Pamela Abraham tracked down the copyrights for the illustrations and assisted in assembling the manu script. Daniel S. Mattern, the series editor at the Institute, deserves a spe cial note of appreciation for guiding us through the difficult process of publishing this collection and for preparing a readable, clear, and concise manuscript. Frank Smith, the executive editor for social sciences at Cam bridge University Press, took great interest in this project from the begin- lX