LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER

The age of affluence failed to address many of the larger issues of liberty, equality, and power. The Eisenhower administration lacked coherent policies on civil rights for African Americans and did not have an Indian policy that was workable. Many Mexican immigrants were rounded up and deported to Mexico causing a stigma to attach to people of Mexican descent and to justify discriminatory treatment of them. None of these groups were given the liberty or power to control their lives or futures, and equality for them was not something that was valued by many white Americans.

The role of power in American politics was demonstrated clearly by American maneuvers around the globe. Increasingly, American officials intervened in Third World politics, often without consulting the peoples of these areas. Eventually, the United States found itself supporting military dictatorships overseas that thrived on power and afforded little or no liberty or equality to their people. In some cases, the CIA or American marines overthrew elected governments and participated in the assassinations of key officials of other countries, justifying their actions on the grounds of protecting the American national interest.

A classic example of the struggle for liberty, equality, and power is the rise of the civil rights movement in the South. White southerners had power over African Americans in their society and were determined to keep it. Rampant discrimination, even over acts as small as denying blacks the right to eat at a lunch counter in a small town, deprived blacks of much of their simple dignity and control over their lives. Blacks began to organize and demonstrate, finding strength in numbers. The demands of minority groups for liberty, equality, and power would not go away. The possible use of government power to advance equality was increasingly an issue.