The American Continents

Abstract

To complete our survey of the world of the nineteen-sixties, it is necessary to glance briefly at the two continents of the Western Hemisphere — North and South America. Here lies one of the two ‘super-powers’ of the postwar era, the leader of the Western system of alliances whose domestic politics are a matter of close concern for the whole of the democratic world, for from them emerges the President of the United States, a man who carries a tremendous load of responsibility for the effectiveness of Western policies. In these two continents is also to be found one of the trouble-points in the cold war — Castro’s Cuba — and in the tangle of relationships round Cuba is also involved the other main historical force in the post-war period — nationalism and the revulsion from colonialism.