policy - The Black Vault

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sympathizing with the young difficult for older Americans.
Thq association
of this counterculture style with the antiwar movement made acceptance of
the ideas of the antiwar movement also extremely difficult for the vast
majority of Americans.
Thus, the connection of the counterculture with the
antiwar movement contributed significantly to the location of the movement
at the extreme left of the American political spectrum.
3. Intellectuals
American intellectuals as a subgroup within American society are
more difficult to define. They have been described as "the gatekeepers of
ideas," as those with "a moral commitment to the values of a society" or as
simply "brilliant."23/ In less lyric terms, intellectuals are those segments
of the educated population which pursue academic or other forms of
"intellectual" work.
Clearly, they do not represent a monolithic body and
the entire spectrum of opinion on the war could be found within the intelligentsia.
However, important members of this subgroup followed a course
similar to the young in their reactions to the war.
A number of American intellectuals had in 1932 endorsed the
Communist Party candidate for President of the United States.
Supporters
included Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Richard
Wright, Katherine Ann Porter, and other notable persons.24/ However, in
the next 20 years, the flirtation of American intellectuals with communism
declined drastically so that by the time the McCarthy purge was over in
1954, scarcely any intellectuals would identify with communist goals.
Instead, the majority of the intellectual community joined the bulk of the
population in uniting against fascism and then transferring that unity of
spirit to the struggle against "international communism."
Meanwhile,
the 20 years after World War II were the golden age of
American universities. The flood of federal aid to the universities,
expanded enrollments, and opportunities for individual grants from the
government provided university professors with never-before-equalled opportunity
and prosperity.
This government-financed age of opportunity provided
an atmosphere of domestic progress, which led American intellectuals
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