What Really Mattered? Not just great events, but underlying causes

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The difficulty in assigning historical significance lies in two places: one is never entirely sure how or why something big happened, and one is no more sure how big it was, or in what way. We can say now that the stifling terms of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I and the ensuing inflation of the German mark may be blamed for Hitler's ascendancy. But what was Hitler's significance? That he devastated Europe with a massive war that concluded with a partition of the world? That he was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews, and thus instilled in the survivors a determination to found their own nation, which in turn stirred the wrath of its neighbors? If a massive war begins in the Middle East, will Hitler have caused that too? It is quite possible, though, that Hitler's career was not the most important event of the past 60 years, which saw as well the splitting of the atom, the rise of television, the discovery of DNA, the construction of "thinking machines." If one's standard is quantitative, the question is no less complicated. Which event of the 1940s will have affected more lives: World War II or the development of penicillin?

At least one may say with confidence that it has been quite a time. Ride through these 60 years as through an amusement park tunnel. They're playing Gershwin, Stravinsky, I Want to Hold Your Hand. From hidden cabinets in the dark lurch Stalin, Nixon, De Gaulle, Ben-Gurion, Mao. Initials cover the walls:

W.P.A., P.L.O., F.D.R., I.R.A., NATO, O.A.S., L.S.M.F.T. Observe the tableaux: Gandhi on his salt march, Einstein in his study, the bodies in Auschwitz, the bodies in Biafra. James Joyce complaining that World War II will interfere with the reception of Finnegans Wake. John Kennedy riding in an open car. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself; "We shall fight on the beaches"; "We shall overcome." Lucky Lindy. The Lindbergh Law. Guernica is bombed. Guernica is painted. Cuba si, Yanqui no. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Charlie Chaplin, Dr. Jonas Salk, Mr. Joe McCarthy, Mr. Al Capone. Oppenheimer staring at the desert. "One giant leap for mankind"; "Oh, the humanity."

Half-forgotten names recur as at a class reunion. Nkrumah, Nguyen Cao Ky, Bulganin, I.G. Farben, Lord Beaverbrook, U Thant, Ben Bella, Cardinal Mindszenty. Do you recall that Patty Hearst was known as "Tania"? Does the name Sherri Finkbine mean anything to you? Frank Wills? It is hard to believe that we danced till we dropped, perched on flagpoles, swallowed all those goldfish, streaked, twisted, marched, sat in, dropped out, rioted, fought, wept. The places we have been: Woodstock, Suez, Dresden, My Lai, Beirut, Johannesburg. Keep cool with Coolidge. I like Ike. Brother, can you spare a dime?