The original "Generation X" was that group of babies born in the late Twenties/early Thirties: they were the younger brothers and sisters of the W.W. II generation. There seemed to have been some talk in the early Fifties that this group of Americans were becoming sardonic and cynical - raised on the W.W. II home front, only to find that when they came of age they were also expected to sacrifice their numbers in a foreign war:
"How can you help being pessimistic when you hear that the boy you sat next to in high school English was killed last week in Korea?"
Additional magazine and newspaper articles about the Cold War may be read on this page.