The Cold War Shadow

The mid­point of 1948Saturn-Pluto1982 coin­cides with the height of the Cold War

A per­sis­tent theme through­out Mad­Men con­stantly reminds of the Cold War shadow that hung over the 1960s. Sea­son Two, Episode 13, “ Med­i­ta­tions in an Emer­gency” uses the Cuban Mis­sile Cri­sis as a plot focus that brings us back to how close peo­ple felt to “Assured Mutual Destruc­tion”. My per­spec­tive, painted by the Sat­urn oppo­si­tion to the 1964–1967 Uranus-Pluto con­junc­tion brings me back to ((1948Saturn-Pluto1983)), the Saturn-Pluto wave span­ning 1948–1983. It proves impor­tant because oppo­si­tions are mid­points of any outer planet wave. These points always denote the over­all theme of any given outer planet wave.; the mid­point of 1948Saturn-Pluto1983, seen from 1964–1967 rep­re­sents the essence of the Saturn-Pluto wave that began near 1948 ( ± 2–3 years on either side).

What hap­pened near 1948? Quite a bit, espe­cially in inter­na­tional diplo­macy. From 1946–1949 nations, old and new, estab­lished or reestab­lished new iden­ti­ties. The base event, shad­ing pol­i­tics and diplo­macy through­out 1948Saturn-Pluto1983, revolved around the advent of the Cold War. This shadow war, begun before the end of World War II, exploded in full view when the Sovi­ets made their inten­tions clear. Sub­se­quently, NATO formed (1949), while the Mar­shal Plan put non-Communist Europe solidly behind the United States. From here through the mid-sixties the proxy wars fought for each side esca­lated to a peak that included con­flicts like the Viet­nam War.
But USA vs USSR does not tell the entire story. Within the last half the 1940s decade the fol­low­ing nations either emerged as inde­pen­dent or seri­ously revised iden­tity via con­sti­tu­tion or new ide­alog­i­cal direc­tion: India (1947), Pak­istan (1947), Israel (1948), Japan (1949), China (1949), all East­ern Bloc (~1944–1949) nations and Ger­many, among oth­ers. These events also inspired oth­ers to claim more auton­omy or move toward inde­pen­dence, result­ing in a wave of decol­o­niza­tion that cas­caded through­out the 50s and 60s. Obvi­ously, with so many rearrange­ments around the globe, pol­i­tics and diplo­macy changed dra­mat­i­cally. Britain and France, two for­mer super­pow­ers, no longer had an indus­trial base that could com­pete with either the Sovi­ets or the Amer­i­cans. With both of these pow­ers out of the top tier of inter­na­tional rela­tions, the two neo­phytes strug­gled to make their own rules and con­nec­tions. Com­bine with the new ‘strate­gic weapon’ with nuclear capa­bil­i­ties and the Cuban Mis­sile Cri­sis, proxy wars, includ­ing Viet­nam, and the gen­eral zeit­geist of the 60s gains greater con­text. The Cold War peaked at the the mid­point of the 1948Saturn-Pluto1983. On both sides cit­i­zens began to ques­tion the pro­pa­ganda used to jus­tify defense spend­ing the Cold War thrived on. Ques­tions about the Viet­nam War caused John­son to resign and ush­ered in a dis­trust with gov­ern­ment that still rever­ber­ates. East­ern Bloc cit­ti­zens could see through friends and fam­ily or through lim­ited trips abroad that the Soviet model fell woe­fully short in pro­vid­ing con­sumer or career choice. The 1968 inva­sion of Prague acts as a har­bin­ger for events to come. We also see the legacy of 1948 in the Seven-Day War (1967), also rooted near the years 1948Saturn-Pluto1983 began. Also add China’s Cul­tural Rev­o­lu­tion that both sig­naled a splin­ter­ing in the Com­mu­nist Bloc. This often bru­tal shed­ding of the old, laid the foun­da­tion for its cur­rent eco­nomic sta­tus. In fact, when we look at the end of the wave, circa 1982–1983, the decline of the USSR became the new theme, one that paints the cur­rent wave ((1983Saturn-Pluto2020)). By 1965 both sides had reached the peak of their influ­ence. In the 1970s, the Mid­dle East and China began to demand equal atten­tion. Each of the major nuclear com­bat­ants at least hinted at dis­ar­ma­ment lead­ing to the START treaties.

Look­ing Back­ward and Forward

1915Saturn-Pluto1947

The waves on either side 1948Saturn-Pluto1983 pro­vide a larger con­text. ((1915Saturn-Pluto1947)) clearly pro­vides the

1915Saturn-Pluto1947 spans both world wars and the death of major empires

foun­da­tion for the Cold War. Basi­cally, seen as one unit, it encom­passes the war period, show­ing con­nec­tion both in episode and cause. 1915–1917 saw the USA emerge as a world power, sent Rus­sia toward Sovi­etism, ended the empires that engen­dered most of the nations, includ­ing Israel, that emerged post World War II.

1983Saturn-Pluto2020

The mid­point of 1983Saturn-Pluto2020 fell on the day the White House chose to ignore warn­ings about al Qaeda

When Does the Post Cold War End?