1138 Ch. 27 • Rebuilding Divided Europe

A gathering of intellectuals after the war, including Jean-Paul Sartre (seated left),

Albert Camus (seated center), Pablo Picasso (standing with arms folded), and

Simone de Beauvoir (to the far right and standing next to some of Picasso s work).

commentary on life itself. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (begun in 1948 but
not published in French until 1952 and in English two years later) tells a dis­
connected tale of two old derelicts, Vladimir and Estragon (although they
call themselves by childish nicknames). They meet night after night in antic­
ipation of the arrival of a certain Godot (perhaps intended to be a diminutive
of God), though it is never clear what difference in their lives his arrival
would ever make, if any. He never comes, so we never know.
Anti-Americanism emerged as a current among many European intellec­
tuals in the post-war period. This reflected hostility to U.S. foreign and
nuclear policy during the Cold War and fear of American domination of
NATO. The U.S. placement of nuclear weapons in Western Europe, begin­
ning in West Germany in 1955, generated both anti-nuclear organizations
and protests. Intellectuals also criticized U.S. culture as reeking of vulgar
materialism. There was an economic dimension to this struggle, as U.S.
companies and products dramatically augmented their presence in Western
Europe. None generated more controversy than Coca-Cola. During the early
1950s, the French government feared the competition that Coke could give
the wine industry. Encouraged by the powerful wine lobby, the French gov­
ernment tried—ultimately without success—to keep Coke from the French
market.