Chapter 50 1957: A turning point for America

Washington initially encouraged the establishment of the European Economic Common Market in order to provide a more efficient market for US industrial exports and capital exports.But the last thing certain factions in Britain and America want is a politically and economically independent continent.Beginning in late 1957, the problem became insidious when the U.S. went through the first phase of a severe, sustained postwar economic depression, with industry stagnating and unemployment growing, which lasted until the 1960s mid-s. The root cause of the economic depression is not difficult to foresee, but the beholder has a different opinion, and the wise see wisdom.The massive investment in industrial plant and capital equipment that had saved the U.S. economy from the depression of the 1930s during the formation of wartime industry from 1939 to 1943 was almost 20 years earlier.By 1957, factories, equipment, and technical levels of labor required more modern resources to maintain their vitality.By the end of the 1950s, if the United States was to remain the number one industrial economy in the world, the United States would need to invest heavily in its labor force, education system, and technological base.But, unfortunately for the United States and the rest of the world, when the depression hit in 1957, those in policy circles chose the program for Washington that was clearly wrong.

There have been internal discussions in US policy circles about how to deal with this crisis.The Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, and others drafted various policy proposals.An ambitious young Harvard professor, Henry Kissinger, became a vassal of the Rockefeller Group at this time. The topic of this discussion is how to deal with the deep impact of the US economic depression.The need for low-interest loans, technological progress, and capital investment in industry and agriculture was ignored by the East Coast liberal establishment.As we have noted, by the end of the 1950s the New York banks had consolidated into a very powerful financial conglomerate that was finding sources of interest outside the United States.

Decisive in the discussion was John McCloy, president of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.When the "counselors" in McCloy's Council on Foreign Relations prepared policy options for the country, McCloy himself brought in Kissinger from Harvard in the late 1950s to revise them.McCloy, a Wall Street lawyer, was chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank at the time.As we mentioned earlier, Chase Manhattan Bank is the bank of "Big Oil". In the 1950s, the big American oil multinationals and their bankers in New York had the entire world market as their domain, not just the United States.In a sense, Saudi Arabia is more "strategic" than Texas.As we can foresee, this distinction will become crucial.

After 1957, through national television and the news media, U.S. policy debates had tilted toward international bankers in lower Manhattan and on Wall Street.They controlled the television stations that had just emerged at the time, centered in New York, they could maintain close ties with the big banks of McCloy and his friends, and they also controlled some news media such as the "New York Times", which was very important for New York interest groups to successfully promote and Policies where the interests of the country and the people are completely opposite, these are very critical.It was during this period that the interest group known to the masses as the "East Coast Establishment" of liberalism was formed.