Vor Achtundsechzig. Der Kalte Krieg und die Neue Linke in der Bundesrepublik und in den USA by Michael Frey (review)

In the crowded field of "1968" scholarship, Michael Frey's monograph offers a new interpretation on the origins of the late 1960s protests. Historians who view "1968" as an eruptive turning point have struggled to explain why the unrest emerged so suddenly. Conversely, those who point to longer-term processes of social liberalization and the formation of a distinct youth culture do not account for why these developments resulted in such radical left-wing protest. Vor Achtundsechzig attempts an alternative explanation: that "1968" was shaped by New Left networks that had formed over several years due to changing dynamics in the Cold War. Using West Germany and the USA as case studies, Frey seeks to demonstrate how shifts in global and domestic politics allowed a diverse range of thinkers and activists to coalesce under a new philosophy, which rejected the binary choice between Moscow-style state socialism and Western anticommunism.

Frey situates the beginning of this process in the mid-1950s. While thousands of Marxists left their respective communist parties after the suppression of the Hungarian Uprising, left-wing democrats became disillusioned by Social Democratic politicians' lack of opposition to Western misdemeanors, such as a CIA-backed coup in Guatemala and the 1956 Suez invasion. The disparate leftists, who now found themselves in a political no-man's land, established journals and discussion fora to exchange ideas and find common ground. As the book's first two chapters show, however, these early ventures were often hamstrung by the climate of "Cold War consensus," which the author defines as the perceived need to contain communism domestically and abroad. Anti-Stalinist socialists, fearing accusations of guilt by association or hardened by previous experiences of communists' co-optation attempts, distanced themselves from initiatives involving anybody who could be construed as loyal to Moscow.

Despite this, a loose network of activists, described in chapter 3 as the Early New Left, emerged between 1957 and 1961. They did not initially possess a distinct ideology but embraced innovative protest methods and decentralized structures outside of established Social Democratic organizations. Here Frey focuses on peace activism and highlights the significance of lesser-known aspects of the protests against nuclear armament. While readers may be familiar with the Kampf dem Atomtod campaign led by the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Frey ascribes greater importance to the student activities that outlasted the SPD's involvement in the protests by several months. In the USA, the Student Peace Union used soapbox speeches and civil disobedience to become the most popular left-wing group on university campuses. Until 1963, its membership outnumbered that of the Students for a Democratic Society, which has received far more scholarly attention.

Chapter 4 reveals how various disruptions to Cold War "bipolar patterns of thinking" (371) furthered the New Left's development. Anti-imperialist movements provided new inspiration: in America, interest in Fidel Castro's social reforms and abolition of racial segregation brought together white socialists and black civil rights campaigners, whereas West German activists were influenced mainly by the Algerian War of Independence. In both cases, numerous leftists abandoned their ideological focus on Western workers, and instead identified revolutionary subjects in the Third World. Furthermore, the Non-Aligned Movement and new variations of state socialism in Cuba and Eastern Europe undermined Cold War liberals' Manichean interpretations of world politics, prompting activists to challenge anticommunist taboos. The eagerness of the Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund to improve relations with the Eastern bloc initiated a process of alienation from the SPD which culminated with the mother party expelling SDS members from its ranks. American counterparts, meanwhile, confronted domestic anticommunism, with the Students for a Democratic Society's 1962 Port Huron Statement condemning its harmful effects. The resolute defense of the statement's arguments by the American SDS encouraged other organizations to adopt a defiant attitude toward the FBI and the House Committee on Un...