Party & Hangover Peace, 1918-11-12 to 1941-12-06
Head in the Sand Peace, 1947-01-01 to 1950-06-24
Red Scare Peace, 1955-02-01 to 1961-02-27
Carter's Peace , 1975-05-08 to 1982-08-23
Reagan's Peace, 1984-08-01 to 1989-12-19
Blink of an Eye Peace, 1990-02-01 to 1990-08-01

The Party & Hangover Peace followed WWI. We had a party, “the Roaring Twenties”, followed by a hangover, “the Great Depression.”

The Head in the Sand Peace followed WWII, when we pretended that defeating Germany and Japan were all we needed to do, while China and the Soviet Union aggressively pursued geographic and political expansion.

The Red Scare Peace came after the Korean War, when we were so afraid of a nuclear holocaust we tried to avoid any confrontations with Soviets and China. Instead, we warred against our own citizens for their political beliefs.

Carter’s Peace could also be called the Peace of Exhaustion. After Vietnam, society in the USA was exhausted. For the last ten years of Vietnam we had in reality been fighting a civil war as well, and it nearly tore the nation apart. Afterwards we were too tired to pick a fight with anyone else, but middle east based terrorists picked a fight with us.

Reagan’s Peace was really an economic war against the Soviet Union. We weren’t shooting and bombing, but we spent so much money preparing to do so that the Soviets were compelled to follow suit, and we essentially outspent them into oblivion.

The Blink of an Eye Peace? Well, it was six months, just a short nap before the never-ending nightmare that is the current Global War on Terrorism.

There, now the Peacetimes have names too. I hope in my lifetime we get the chance to name another one.

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