o Korea and Southeast Asia. The U.S. became increasingly alarmed, and passed that fear along to its citizens. Ginsberg is concerned about how America will handle the increasing Red menace, and comments on the situations in France and Tangiers. He is disgusted at how America has taken on the role of the world's protector, but still neglects thousands of its own citizens. The T.V. speaks, "I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underprivileged who / live in my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns." (P-M 370) These are some of the same issues that will divide the country in the next decade: the Communists, racial tension, the poor and war. Ginsberg points them out well in advance, but his voice is muted under the constant humming of the television vacuum tubes. The last major portion of the poem delves right at the heart of the Cold War. As it is well known, the Cold War was fought with words and ideas, not planes and atomic bombs. This propaganda was chiseled into the psyche of all citizens through the use of every form of media available. The message: fear all communists. He writes (P-M 370): America you don't really want to go to war.America it's them bad Russians.Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take our cars from out our garages. Ginsberg is pointing out America's tendency to blame the Communists for its problems instead of taking responsibility for its own problems. It was more convenient for the U.S. government to blame the Russians for its faltering economy, structured around the M.I.C., than own up to an uncontrollable bureaucracy and inadequate leadership. For the most part, the American citizen went right along with the plan, and Ginsberg knew this. This is evident because of the transition he makes right before the end of the poem, in which the focus is turned away from the atroci...
