Misc on GR

[Monte Davis]

The downside of that "international-minded"ness, of course, was that

(1) Having been isolationist and unready in 1939 (ISTR we had about the same
number of servicemen that year as Portugal), in 1945 we had bases
everywhere, big chunks of overseas empires the British and French and Dutch
could no longer afford _de facto_ in our hands... and so unfavorable events
*anywhere* could be portrayed as another Munich, another place we needed to
draw the line against aggression

(2) Combine the shock of Pearl Harbor and the prospect of super-V2s with The
Bomb on top -- and there would no longer be any *time* for that quaint old
Constitutional malarkey about Congressional war powers. Only the Emp -- uhh,
President could act swiftly and decisively enough in the new scheme of
things... or know all the relevant national-security secrets

Which is how we got into those movie seats -- Now, everybody! -- in
Pynchon's 1973. And, with the hair trigger relaxed maybe a little, where we
are today.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Markekohut
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 6:00 AM
To: pynchon -l
Subject: Misc on GR

The great artists find and create the great overarching symbols And forms,
we know. Something new learned about the V-2:

for two decades up to WW2, a Senator (Vandenburg of
Michigan) was the leading powerful voice for US Isolationism. 
Four weeks after the Germans invaded Poland he said, " This so-called war Is
nothing but about 25 people and propaganda."

The pressure of that so-called War worked on him." the final turning of his
thinking Came when he stood in London in1944 and listened to German robot
bombs Snarl overhead. " How can there be immunity or isolation, when man can
devise Weapons like that." 

His Senate address after was hailed as near-great; there was bipartisan
applause.
All the nations' pundits checked in, some of the most famous, [TRB in New
Republic,] Surprised. 

The Senate ratification of the UN charter shortly after had had journalists
expecting Another League of Nations contentiousness....
But the US was fully international-minded even in Congress now. [ remember
the postwar Riff about the 50's in GR?] 

From: The Crucial Decade--and After 1945-1960 by Eric Goldman.


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