During my first two years at the University of Washington Dwight Eisenhower was still President. He had led the defeat of Fascism in Europe, presided over a booming post-war economy during his two terms, and fired MacArthur before the General could drop an A-bomb on North Korea. My stepfather, who had served in the Pacific, supported Eisenhower's candidacy, as did my mother, whose first husband had perished in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. I recall wearing an "I Like Ike" button, but I really only had a sketchy view of the issues then.
Being a Land Grant College, the UW was required to offer mandatory R.O.T.C. (Reserve Officer Training Corps) courses which were mandatory for the first two years in school for every male student. We learned some elementary military procedures including map reading, and we marched in a gym building once weekly wearing WWII-era uniforms and shouldering M1 rifles. I was conflicted about the experience. The uniform was the same my father had worn and I respected his sacrifice. At the same time I disliked having to walk around the campus wearing the uniform and I resented the requirement to submit to the authority of the military drill instructors.
The end of the school year was marked by a brief R.O.T.C. parade and an assembly of the uniformed students in the Quad. As we lined up in for the final speeches, a loudspeaker smuggled into the top floor of one of the nearby buildings began blaring out the lyrics of the Mickey Mouse theme song: M-I-C-K-E-Y... It was only mildly humiliating as I was faceless in the uniformed crowd. I vaguely understood and appreciated the anti-authoritarian message. I remember thinking that the protestors had shown some courage in challenging the event. I don't recall hearing anything about penalties being exacted against them.
In spite of some innate skepticism about the wielding of political and military power, I bought into much of the country's foreign policies over the next five years. That loyalty eroded as the war effort started by Eisenhower and intensified by Kennedy against the Vietnamese people heated up. In the end, I joined the marches against the war and I cheered when Lyndon Johnson resigned as the country became ungovernable.
It seemed for a time under Kennedy, and more so under Obama, that there was reason for some optimism that the country was outgrowing racism, misogyny and xenophobia. That was clearly delusional, so it seems now that we really need MICKEY again. *
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* Jacinda Ardern might do.
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