Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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across the Yalu River. Determined to force the issue, MacArthur was publicly

insubordinate to his commander-in-chief, threatening to destroy China if it did not

concede defeat. For this he was relieved of command on April 12, 1951, returning to the

United States to a hero’s welcome of ticker-tape parades. Truman’s action incensed his

foes and further contributed to the anti-communist hysteria, with senators like Richard

Nixon

and Joseph

McCarthy

claiming that the State Department was in the hands o

communists.

In 1952 an armistice was signed, but the fighting continued. While negotiations bogged

down over the issue of prisoner exchange and the territorial integrity of North Korea, a

new president, Dwight D.

Eisenhower,

pushed for the war to be won, or at least for peace

with honor. The new

vice-president,

Nixon, advocated the use of the nuclear option, and

nuclear brinkmanship became part of American strategy to keep the Soviet Union out o

the conflict and to force Koreans to the bargaining table on American terms. Not until

July 1953 was a final settlement reached, ending with the lines that had been drawn prior

to the beginning of the conflict.

The impact of the war on American society and culture was considerable. The increase

in tensions between the two major superpowers contributed to the rise of McCarthyism,

exacerbating fears of communism already heightened by the “loss” of China and the

Soviet Union’s development of an atomic bomb. In addition, the fact that North Korea

had been under the control of the Soviet Union prior to its invasion of South Korea, and

that it was China who came to its defense once MacArthur moved north of the 38th

arallel, cemented the idea of an indivisible communist bloc. This image of communism

as a single political entity would stymie American foreign policy long after the tensions

etween the Soviet Union and communist China, which were becoming manifest during

the Korean conflict itself, were evident, with particularly tragic consequences in Vietnam.

The failure in Korea also led to new foreign policy initiatives. Tainted by his inability

to bring about a victory in Korea, leading John F.

Kennedy

to paint him as someone who

was tied to the “containment” strategy Eisenhower began actively to encourage nations to

combat communism around the world. The “Eisenhower doctrine” offering support to

countries in the Middle East was one part of this approach, as was his employment of the

CIA

Iran

and Guatemala. Moreover, the attempt to dislodge

Castro

Cuba,

which

would come to be known as the

Bay of Pigs,

was begun under Eisenhower, though it was

left to Kennedy to engineer the debacle.

The stalemate in Korea, however, limited American commitment to such cavalier

initiatives (even during the Kennedy administration’s celebration of counter-insurgency)

and increased the nation’s reliance on what John Foster called a “new-look”

olicy

contained in the threat of nuclear weapons and “massive retaliation.” The war in Korea

had accelerated work on the hydrogen bomb, and its completion facilitated a shift from

costly conventional forces to the relatively cheap nuclear stockpile.

The war also had a considerable impact on the domestic front. Over 5½ million

Americans served in the war (for the first time in integrated units). Many returned after

experiencing North Korean POW camps, and 103,284 came back wounded. The deaths

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 636

of nearly 37,000 Americans were also devastating for all families losing relations. Yet,

unlike in the case of the Vietnam War in the next decade, the war did not create vocal,

widespread opposition. In part this was because of the anticommunist hysteria brought on

by Truman’s

Cold War

policies and by Senator Joe McCarthy’s campaign. In addition,

the economy, fuelled by the war expenditures, was booming. What Eisenhower would

call the “military-industrial complex” was established during the Korean War. The need

for armaments and military installations acted in a way similar to deficit spending in the

Keynesian model. With GIs and defense-industry workers securing good wages and

having plenty to spend them on, such as new housing development and

automobiles,

the

economy could expand without the problem of inflation.

As “a forgotten war,” the Korean conflict received little of the kind of attention from

movies and

television

that other wars received. No major Korean War monument was

built comparable to the

Vietnam Memorial

Washington, DC

Pork Chop Hill

(1959)

was one of the rare movies made soon after the conflict, while

The Manchurian

Candidate

(1962), which began with the conflict, was not shown for many years owing to

its association with

assassination

M*A*S*H,

the popular movie (1970) and television

series (CBS, 1972–83), which focused on a doctors’ unit during the war, was shaped in

art by a sensibility derived from the Vietnam War, though the sense of futility involved

in a war marked by stalemate and diplomatic stumbling was also a constant feature of the

Korean conflict.

Further reading

Hastings, M. (1987)

The Korean War,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

Giangreco, D.M. (1990)

War in Korea,

Novato: Presidio.

Paschall, R. (1995)

Witness to War, Korea,

New York: The Berkley Publishing Group.

ROBERT GREGG

Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan is America’s oldest terrorist hate group. It was founded in December

1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by several well-educated exConfederate soldiers. The group

took its name from the Greek word

kukios

meaning circle. The organization started as an

adult

fraternity

devoted to performing weird rituals and practical jokes. It quickly

evolved into a secretive regional terrorist and political organization countering new civil-

rights laws and the federal military occupation of the post-Civil War

South

Led by ex-Confederate general and slaveholder, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the group

gained over half-a-million members throughout the South. Hooded nightriders terrorized

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and killed

African American

activists and their sympathizers in addition to transplanted

Northerners, while groups, such as the Louisiana-

ased Knights of the White Camilla,

undertook similar activities. With increased public outcry and the threat of congressional

hearings and legislation looming, Forrest disbanded the group in 1869. Not all factions

followed his order. The Klan withered during the 1870s after a series of high-

rofile

rosecutions and changes in the political landscape. When northern troops withdrew, the

need for terrorism against blacks became less pressing as

Jim Crow

laws restricting the

social, economic and political activities of Southern blacks were passed.

The second incarnation of the Klan took place in 1915, spurred by the racist pro-Klan

motion picture,

Birth of a Nation

(1915), and resurrected by a roving preacher-salesman,

William Simmons. The new Klan under Simmons barely stood out from the variety o

conservative organizations of the day. In 1920 two Atlanta publicists signed on and

changed its tone to be much more vitriolic against “immoral whites” and minorities,

particularly Catholics. By the mid-1920s, the Klan had 4.5 million members and

exercised considerable political influence, particularly in Indiana. After 1925, the Klan

was plagued by more internal power struggles, a loss of political influence and bad

publicity over horrendous crimes.

During the

Civil Rights movement,

the Klan emerged anew, leading to numerous

murders, assaults, arsons and bombings in the 1950s and 1960s. While never regaining

their former membership or political power, these white-hooded bands remain visible

symbols of hate which have appeared sporadically in the 1980’s and 1990’s northern

cities and suburban rallies, as well as outbursts against ongoing changes in the South.

Using publicity as much as terror, they have sometimes claimed rights of free speech to

legitimize their presence and voice their beliefs.

BRIAN LEVIN

labor

see

Left, the; strikes; unions; working class

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 638

lacrosse

Field sport that resembles both

soccer

and

hockey,

with a ball being moved towards the

goal through the air using nets attached to sticks. Lacrosse’s origins are found in the

American Indian

sport known as Baggataway, but it owes its spread in the US to elite

prep schools and

colleges

NCAA

tournaments have been held since 1971 to establish

national champions for both women and men’s colleges, with the

Ivy League

universities

initially dominant, but much less so thirty years later. Wooden sticks have been replaced

y ones with plastic heads and aluminum shafts, which have made the stick lighter so that

players are able to develop much better stick skill. The women’s stick is of a slightly

different design that requires greater finesse, possible in the women’s game because less

physical contact is permitted. For the men’s game, though, protective gear, especially

around the head, is required. The game is opening the doors to commercialization as

indoor semi-

rofessional leagues have been started, taking advantage of the diversity o

sports coverage made possible by

cable

television, and as equipment makers sponsor

exhibitions around the country and abroad to spread the sport.

ROBERT GREGG

language

While the United States is an English-speaking nation, no official government

pronouncement confirmed this—at least until the

English-Only

campaigns of the 1980s

forced this upon state legislatures. Nonetheless, generations of those absorbed by

American expansion and immigrants have acceded to the domination of English in

education, public life, media and everyday life just as the nation’s projection abroad has

gone through English channels. Older inhabitants—including

American Indians,

Hispanic

and French residents and Hawai’ians—as well as generations of immigrants,

have held onto their own languages for literary ceremonial and

family

uses, despite

transgenerational pressures to assimilate. Newer immigrants, while adding the variegated

resence of more than 300 languages (and variable government support) to an American

melting-

ot, show similar patterns of change over time. Hence, in the 1990 census, 80

ercent of the population spoke only English, while half of the remainder spoke English

as well as another language. After more than two centuries, American English—

distinguished from its British mother tongue and other colonial developments—

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represents a unifying feature of American national identity discourse and media.

The unification of this distinctive language, however, has also recognized diversity and

challenges as well as changes over time. By the early nineteenth century works such as

Webster’s Dictionary

and the

McGuffey Reader

distinguished American English from

British counterparts. Distinctions have included forms and usages (often informal) and a

rich vocabulary constantly supplemented by encounters with other speakers—

ative

American place names, diverse food names and basic vocabulary derived from multiple

languages, including “buckaroo” (Spanish

vaquero

“cowboy”), “kibitz” (Yiddish and

German words for being a busybody), “moccasin” (used by Virginians from 1612, from

the Powhatan or Micmac), “shanty” (from the Irish

sean tig

“old house” or the French

chantier

“log hut”), “boss” (Dutch

baas

), “gung ho” (Chinese

kung ho

) and

“juke” (Wolof

dzug

In the twentieth century while

assimilation

to English with some bilingualism

remained the norm,

mass media

like the Spanish-language

television

Telemundo and

Univision underscored new transnational support for other languages with large

communities of speakers in the US—with 20 million Spanish speakers, for example, the

United States ranks sixth among world nations in this language. Yiddish, although limited

in speakers (200,000+), survived as a medium of expression in the US after Hitler’s

devastation of Central European Jewry. Other important bilingual competencies in the US

include French, German, Italian, various forms of Chinese, Tagalog, Polish and Korean,

although many others have contributed to the expressiveness and vocabulary of American

English. Meanwhile, Native American languages have been revived as expressions o

national identity just as Hawai’ian and Hawai’ian pidgin have claimed renewed

emphasis.

ASL

(American Sign Language) has also received recognition as a distinct

(“foreign”) language.

Perhaps the most controversial language variant of the United States is Black English

(“Ebonics”). African slaves, forcibly imported into the United States, combined the

vocabularies, structures and rhythms of African languages and speech of the slave trade

with English. In isolation, these became strongly marked dialects like Gullah of the

Southern coast

. In other cases, Black English occupies a post-creole continuum, in

which distinctive forms of tense and pronoun use, dual negatives and other features may

be used in certain circumstances, but “corrected” in others, especially by speakers who

switch fluently to Standard English. The role of Black English as a separate language has

een debated by educators and linguists. Moreover, language structure shades over into

distinctive styles of rhetoric, expressivity wordplay and music that also define an African

American tradition of English used by public figures like Martin Luther

King,

Jr. or

authors like James

Baldwin

and Ntozake Shange.

Other variations in American English reflect historical differences of region,

immigration,

class

and

education

. American accents may be identified with cities

(Brooklyn,

New York

City NY, Chicago, etc.), although

migration

also means that

newer areas may lack any identifiable accent—one rarely speaks of a

Phoenix

Seattle

accent.

Sunbelt

development, however, has intersected with a strong regional accent—

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 640

the Southern “drawl,” involving lengthened vowels, weaker final consonants and

melodious intonation. A distinctive New England accent includes a highly rounded “o”

and back “a,” as well as an extended final “r”—“Hahhvahhd” (for Harvard). The

Brooklyn accent, by contrast, reflects the impact of immigrant Irish, German and Yiddish

speakers in the shift from “th” to “d,” or other marked traits. The normative accent of the

US, reaffirmed by mass-media announcers, tends to be the flatter and nasal English of the

Midwest

and

West

. Regional accents, in turn, tend to reflect associations of regional

culture—identification of a New England accent with powerful history and Yankee

harshness, or of a Southern accent with ease but a lack of development. Ironically the

latter remained important in presidential politics for Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Gore and

George Bush, Jr. (versus his father’s

Northeastern

speech).

Accents also refer to class, though not as markedly as in the British system. Class,

moreover, is mediated by region and, above all, by education—correctness of speech and

vocabulary are taken as primary indicators. William Labov, in his studies of New York

City speech, showed that speakers of various class backgrounds try to correct towards

what they perceive as an educated norm in careful speech (indeed, he identified

middle-

class

speakers who showed a tendency to overcorrect with linguistic insecurity). Etiquette

books also warn about proper phrases and topics as well as usages to

e avoided. Class is

also read into “foreign accents”: British and French accents in the US are taken generally

to be indicators of higher status, while Asian and Hispanic accents suggest recent arrival

or lower-class status.

Yet, all these indicators of class are challenged by language as a site of creativity and

rebellion. Slang and jargons associated with particular groups have been vital parts of the

reinvention of English from generation to generation. Some inventions have endured—

from the ubiquitous “OK,” which may have African roots, to more recent ephemera.

Professional jargons circulate rapidly through

mass media,

despite those critics who

decry their obfuscation or lack of creativity. Slang, as a creation of those outside the

mainstream, occupies an even more confusing position as the slang of youth becomes the

home language of new generations. One notes shifts, for example, not only in individual

words but in the vocabularies of profanity and sexuality that

baby boomers

use fluently

in contrast to their parents (and perhaps to

children

who are ingrained in proper speech

as they develop their own rebellions).

Language is also about style and American values of

individualism,

“popular culture”

and

consumerism

. Again, culturally constructed divisions like the fluidity of black

preaching, the supposedly hard-nosed criticism of big-city speech or the politeness o

women represent both ideological constructs and language practices. Multiple media

represent and participate in a continual recreation of American language and language

practices. Hence, the phrase “Make my day” (from Clint

Eastwood’s

hard-edged cop in

irty Harry

) was recycled by Ronald

Reagan

as president, while the advertising slogan

“Where’s the beef?” also appeared in political debates. Indeed, the ubiquity of English

among 250 million speakers (as well as those who speak or “listen to” American products

in other countries) has sustained music, literature,

advertising, television

and films as

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channels in which American English is continually reinvented and shared.

Further reading

Chapman, R. (1986)

New Dictionary of American Slang,

New York: Holt & Rinehart.

ictionary of American Regional English

(1985–) Cambridge, MA: Harvard.

Flexner, S. (1976)

I Hear America Talking,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

Labov, W. (1972)

Sociolinguistic Patterns,

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Mencken, H.L. (1936)

The American Language,

New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Rickford, J. (1999)

African-American Vernacular English,

Malden: Blackwell.

GARY McDONOGH

Las Vegas, NV

Soaring in neon exuberance over the hostile

Southwestern

desert, Las Vegas represents a

fantasy of

gambling,

glamour and license to more than 30 million tourists annually Jobs

created by this fantasy in turn, have made it one of America’s fastest growing cities,

reaching an estimated population of 404,288 in 1998, a 56 percent increase over 1990.

The spectacle city of the Strip,

Elvis,

slot machines, cheap buffets and

wedding

chapels

faces new demands for civic identity.

Las Vegas emerged from obscurity through water (artesian wells), power (Hoover

Dam, 1928) and gambling, which Nevada legalized in 1931. By 1940 this 10,000–citizen

resort had a Western flavor; northern Reno, the state capital, was more famous for

gambling and

divorce

. Vegas’ creation myth (recrafted in the 1991 movie

Bugsy

) cites

mobster Bugsy Siegel as the genius who synthesized Los Angeles

modernism

and

motels in the rebuilt Flamingo before his “untimely” death in 1947. Underworld

connections, a continual concern of the Nevada gaming commission, were largely purged

by the 1960s.

Las Vegas’ subsequent development has challenged boundaries of neon,

architecture,

spectacle and taste. In the 1960s, Howard Hughes shaped the city as both owner-

developer and reclusive billionaire. In 1966 Caesar’s Palace established theme-

ark

models, later followed by MGM Grand, Excalibur (medieval), Luxor (Ancient Egypt),

Bellagio (artistic Italian) and Caesar’s own archeological invention, complete with

talking statues. In Circus Circus, another 1960s creation, high-wire acts flew over slot

machines, prefiguring a shift to

“family”

entertainment in the 1990s. The late 1960s also

saw the beginning of corporate Las Vegas, with ever-larger and more complicated

casino-resorts, traded as joint-stock corporations by entrepreneurs like Steve Wynn and

William Bennett.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 642

Alongside neon cascades, erupting volcanoes and pirate battles, Las Vegas also meant

show business. Frank

Sinatra

and his “rat pack,” Elvis

Presley, Liberace

(who left his

museum behind) and Barbra

Streisand

are identified with the city as are bejeweled and

efeathered chorus lines, lounge singers, magicians, call girls and animal trainers.

Celebrities, in turn, use the city as a backdrop for films,

television, marriages

and

divorces

Beyond the glitter, Las Vegas faces the complexities of other American cities,

including 1992 riots (after Rodney

King

) that underscored the dilemmas of its

African

American

population. A significant

Mormon

population and growing families place

demands on schools and other resources. New civic buildings, including a

library/performing-arts center by Michael

Graves

and the University of Nevada, have

created a city beyond the Strip. Even casinos are adding “reality”—Wynn’s touted

collection of European art—to glitter.

Yet for millions who know the city through media and visits, Las Vegas remains a city

of dreams (Elvis’

Viva Las Vegas,

1966; the James Bond thriller

Diamonds are Forever,

1969;

Sister Act,

1981) and nightmares (

Show Girl,

1996;

Leaving Las Vegas,

1997).

Further reading

Puzo, M. (1977)

Inside Las Vegas,

New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

Anderton, F. and Chase, J. (1997)

Las Vegas,

London: Ellipsis.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

late-night television

For nearly fifty years, the time slot between the 23:00 local

news

and station sign-off has

been dominated by one format—the live

talk show

—and one show—NBC’s

Tonigh

Show

—under a succession of hosts. Other local stations generally fought back with

movies and syndicated programming. CBS’

Tonight Show

offshoot,

ate Night with

avid Letterman,

ABC’s

Nïghtline

and the syndicated

Arsenio Hall Show,

among others,

have created viable alternatives, yet still within a conversational format.

Noting other experiments in late-night programming, NBC developed the

Tonigh

Show

from a local program hosted by Steve Allen, a witty urbane New York comedian

and pianist. Between 1954 and 1957, Allen created the formula for the ninety-minute

show—a living-room ambience, complete with

family

(announcer and band) and varied

celebrity

guests, from sex symbols to poet Carl

Sandburg

. Comic features, music and

excursions into the live audience and onto the street framed and paced the talk,

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incorporating a democracy of celebrity into late-night relaxation. This era also established

union scale as guest payment (while growing commercial revenues poured into NBC

coffers for generations). Celebrities, nonetheless, have used this teleforum to sell their

movies, songs and

television

shows, careers, athletic achievements and humanity

(including political candidates).

NBC revived

the Tonight Show

under Jack Paar (1957–62), who hosted John

Kennedy

and Richard

Nixon,

as well as show business celebrities. Paar also began

taping shows in advance, although still with a live audience. Edgy, personal and

combative, Paar walked off the show—on air -in 1960 after a fight with censors.

In 1962 Johnny Carson took over for three decades. Carson did not change his

predecessors’ formats, but overlaid them with a casual style that suited the Manhattan

show’s move to

California

in 1972. He made the monologue more topical, while his

approval legitimated newcomers in standup

comedy,

music and film for decades. Both

star guests and the sheer repetition of formulaic jokes, sketches and banter with

announcer Ed MacMahon, made Carson a constant fixture in American life and language.

Carson’s 1992 retirement created a battle between a frequent replacement host, stand-

up comedian Jay Leno, and David Letterman. Letterman already had developed his

sometimes surreal humor, more Allen than Carson, on NBC’s

Late Nïght

(1982–92).

Here, he took over a new 00:30–01:30 slot pioneered by Tom Snyder’s intimate,

discursive

Tomorrow

(1973–82). The “wars” ended with Letterman getting millions from

CBS, creating competition in style, features and location (Letterman’s

Times Square

versus Leno’s California), although guests migrate between these shows and the younger-

oriented talk shows that follow.

Meanwhile, in 1979, ABC began nightly broadcasts on the

Iran

hostage crisis. A few

months later, this became the half-hour

Nightline.,

hosted by Ted Koppel.

Nïghtline

rovides analysis, contentious interviews and debates on hot news, and longer

investigative, town meeting and location reports confronting American dilemmas of riots,

rison, racism, presidential scandal and challenges abroad. With its sobriety and

immediacy

Nightline

has, at times, eclipsed variety-show rivals.

While various other syndicated talk shows and hosts have failed in the 1980s and

1990s, the

Arsenio Hall Show

(1989–94) was both a racial break-through for its

African

American

host and a generational one, in contrast to the aging Carson. Hall, however,

mixed super-hip with seriousness, including frank discussions of

AIDS

with Magic

Johnson and poignant coverage/appeals for calm during the 1992

Los Angeles

riots. A

1990s newcomer, Bill Maher’s

Politically Incorrect

(ABC), throws together celebrities,

politicians and “average” citizens in pointed discussions of politics and culture, especially

during

Clinton’s

unfolding scandals, while PBS’ Charlie Rose promotes erudite one-on-

one exchanges.

Morning television provides information and family chatter to begin the day. Late-

night has permitted adult talk to chronicle, comment on and sometimes create fifty years

of American life, media, politics and change, whether packaged as

humor

and gossip or

serious debate. These shows have emerged as significant sources of political information

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 644

and opinion for viewers. In the 1990s, viewers also can escape to multiple

cable

options—movies, reruns, cooking and sports—or simply go to bed.

Further reading

Bianculli, D. (1996)

Dictionary of Teleliteracy,

New York: Continuum.

Carter, B. (1994)

The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno and the Network Battle for the Night,

New York: Hyperion.

GARY McDONOGH

Latin America

While the US has often portrayed itself as the champion of democracy and

freedom

the Western Hemisphere, protector against outsiders and even a partner in Pan-American

development, its neighbors have not always shared this image. Instead, the “Colossus o

the North” has, in their eyes, made unilateral declarations of policy, intervened to protect

murky interests and acted as a domineering patriarch. These images, and the experiences

and actions that underpin them, often have made US relations with its American

neighbors conflictive, even though goods, citizens and ideas cross borders. Moreover,

experiences have varied among nations: while

Mexico,

the

Caribbean

and Central

America have been constant foci of American activity nations to the south have

sometimes negotiated alternate ties with each other and with Europe.

US values have been embodied in statements that betray perceptions of Latin

American weakness. The 1823 Monroe Doctrine of President James Monroe warned

Europeans (without any ratification) not to intervene further in the Western Hemisphere.

This vision later gained more force when used to justify US appropriation of territory in

the west and claims of hemispheric interests. President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1904

corollary allowing the US to intervene in problem nations of the hemisphere, turned

protector into policeman. While Franklin

Roosevelt’s

Good Neighbor policy (1935–45)

sought a new appearance of partnership, including concessions to Latin American

sovereignty, relations of power scarcely changed. US concerns expanded even more as

the

Cold War

raised the specter of

communism

in Latin America.

Twentieth century US actions have betrayed deep ambivalence. Intervention to

restructure debt or establish order, for example, also meant the US dictated terms by

which

Haiti, Cuba, Panama

or Nicaragua might regain their autonomy. During the Cold

War, professed ideals of freedom were sacrificed for stability of US political and

economic interests. Bloody dictators were supported and popular movements suppressed

with massive US aid, military support and

CIA

assistance. Leftist movements were

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