The SDS, a Transatlantic Alliance, Red and Black Panthers

Abstract

The student revolts of the late 1960s constitute a major “caesura” in post-1945 history,1 and Professor Martin Klimke's recent monograph demonstrates that youth unrest in Berlin and Berkeley not only questioned the verities of their societies' politics and culture, but also posed a major challenge to Cold War diplomacy. His book is the first serious attempt by a scholar to elucidate the international linkages that existed between student groups across national borders. Many previous scholars have alluded to transnational connections among student activists,2 but Klimke is the first to document these connections using the ties between the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Socialist German Student Union (SDS). Aptly titled, Klimke's work is an excellent example of an emerging “second generation” of scholars who are posing new questions about the 1960s.3 Drawing upon previously neglected methodological tools and sources from diplomatic history, he shows how transatlantic connections between student activists helped form a “second front” (p. 237) to oppose the official Cold War alliance between Bonn and Washington. Using recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports, memoirs, and oral interviews, his book convincingly documents the transnational nature of the youth movements that rocked the world in the 1960s.