-
1. Cold War University: Higher Education after World War II
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
15 1 Cold War Uni ver sity Higher Ed u ca tion after World War II Stand ing be fore the Uni ver sity of Wisconsin’s grad u at ing class of 1948, Gen eral Omar Brad ley, hero of World War II and a key player in the 1944 in va sion of Nor mandy, spoke with a de ter mined grav ity. That sum mer, there were many rea sons to be pes si mis tic about the fu ture, and the events that had shaken the world over the past sev eral months and years hung heavy in Bradley’s words: “The great pow ers have joined in a strug gle for the hearts and minds of peo ple,” Brad ley said, “call ing on them to choose between a free and cap tive life. This strug gle must even tu ally re solve it self ei ther in peace ful set tle ment of fun da men tal dif fer ences or it must erupt even tu ally in the vi o lence and con vul sion of war.”1 On that warm after noon, every one knew the strug gle to which Brad ley re ferred. Usu ally a time for cel e bra tion, the joy of grad u a tion was tem pered by the knowl edge that Wisconsin’s grad u ates, and in deed all Americans, faced a world that was bur dened by the de vel op ing Cold War. Thoughts about jobs and fam i lies inter min gled with the re al ity of a world wide strug gle with an in defi nite ho ri zon, of the Cold War and the onset of the atomic age. Peace, as Brad ley de clared, re quired vig i lance and strength: “Peace is a frag ile and fu gi tive bless ing for which mil lions have given their lives. But it can not be eas ily fash ioned from the wreck age of this last war. It must be con structed by sac ri fice, by cou rage, by pa tience, among peo ple who value it highly enough to de fend it. It de mands moral lead er ship, ad her ence to prin ci ple, and the will ing ness of na tions to sus tain it with such strength as it shall need for en force ment.” Call ing on the grad u ates be fore him to bring faith to a “tired world,” Brad ley re minded them that they could not ig nore the events tak ing place in the world around them. They were 16 E Cold War University con fronted by a choice: ei ther forge an eq ui ta ble and sus tain able peace or risk chaos and dis as ter. Sit ting on the side lines was no longer an op tion. “You are im pli cated in the des tiny of a world from which you can not es cape,” Brad ley con cluded. “Ei ther you work for peace and prosper with it. Or you aban don the world to ag gres sion and per ish.”2 Bradley’s speech de picted a par tic u larly stark fu ture for Wisconsin’s young grad u at ing class, re flect ing as it did the mood of the na tion dur ing that har row ing sum mer. In rais ing the Cold War as a fun da men tal issue in young people’s lives, how ever, it was much less re mark able. Ever since the end of World War II and for many years after Gen eral Brad ley spoke, the Cold War was a pow er ful re al ity for stu dents. Some times in ways that were clearly iden tifi able, such as the loom ing of the draft or the reg u lar threats to po lit i cal dis course, and some times in ways that were less no tice able, like the creep of Cold War mil i tar iza tion into students’ daily lives and the deep en ing re la tion ship between the fed eral govern ment and the uni ver sity, the Cold War was much more than a strug gle in some far away place. The do mes tic bat tle against com mu nism was a so cial, cul tural, and po lit i cal strug gle...