America: from Example to Exasperation?

Before 1945, America, the land of endless opportunities, far beyond the horizon, had always had a magical ring to it, the stuff of dreams. Perceptions of America suddenly became more concrete at the end of the Second World War, when American soldiers played the leading role in the liberation of Western Europe. In the quiet that followed victory on the battlefield a thick blanket of American military, political, economic, technological and cultural supremacy spread across Europe. The new cocktail of Christian fundamentalism, patriotism and militarism served up in November 2004 has caused many in the Low Countries seriously to doubt whether America in the twenty-first century still stands for the same values as it did in the previous century. A brief analysis of the Dutch take on the US of A, from 1945 up to 2005.