"The tinted peoples of the world are on the march as never before. We must not be the symbol of their oppression, but of their hope... Most deeply dangerous of all is that the United States might become the symbol of would-be white supremacy in the world..."
(Click here to read about this upheaval in the Developing World)
- So wrote the news editor of The Christian Science Monitor, Erwin Canham in 1954 when he made the case that if America was to win the Cold War, changes would have to be made insofar as how the country viewed the non-white world. Canham stressed that there was no benefit for the U.S. to be perceived as beeing in league with the old colonial powers of Europe and steps should be taken to differentiate us from them. This editorial (and others like it) were taken seriously and over time America began to clean house; rewriting the immigration laws (1965) and championing civil rights at home and abroad.
"...Most deeply dangerous of all is that the United States might become the symbol of would-be white supremacy in the world..."
The Department of State hated it when Radio Moscow would depict Americans as simply a bunch of "lynch-happy bigots"...
Additional magazine and newspaper articles about the Cold War may be read on this page.
