"Make Love Not War" is the 13th episode in the 24-episode "Cold War" series co-produced by CNN and the BBC. For American viewers at least, this episode covers familiar topics from the 1960's - Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, JFK and his assassination, LBJ's Great Society, the hippie counter-culture, the Vietnam War and the anti- war movement, and the incredibly dramatic year of 1968. To paraphrase one historian's opinion, Americans encountered more history in the 1960s than they could digest.
There are a couple historical nuggets in this episode that are usually not mentioned in more conventional histories of 1960s America. The defense industry, for example, was a major source of employment for many middle-class Americans during the Cold War; their "bread and butter" according to one interviewee. To this day, there are many Americans who are not fully aware of the powerful role that the military and its supporting industries continue to play in the American economy. In places like Hawai'i and the territory of Guam, the U.S. Federal government (and especially the military) provides an important and steady source of jobs and local revenue.
For most American viewers, "Make Love, Not War" will offer a pretty familiar history of 1960s America, but like the Cold War series in general, the history is told in an even-handed fashion. Perhaps the most important theme in this episode is the connection between America's domestic politics and economy and American foreign policy, a connection that is not always visible to American or non-American observers.
There are a couple historical nuggets in this episode that are usually not mentioned in more conventional histories of 1960s America. The defense industry, for example, was a major source of employment for many middle-class Americans during the Cold War; their "bread and butter" according to one interviewee. To this day, there are many Americans who are not fully aware of the powerful role that the military and its supporting industries continue to play in the American economy. In places like Hawai'i and the territory of Guam, the U.S. Federal government (and especially the military) provides an important and steady source of jobs and local revenue.
For most American viewers, "Make Love, Not War" will offer a pretty familiar history of 1960s America, but like the Cold War series in general, the history is told in an even-handed fashion. Perhaps the most important theme in this episode is the connection between America's domestic politics and economy and American foreign policy, a connection that is not always visible to American or non-American observers.
