If we didn't start the fire, who did?

"We Didn't Start the Fire" - Billy Joel, writer and singer

Relased: November 10, 1989

My guess is most of you have at least heard this song, but I've always been astounded at the incorporation of so many pivotal events into a great song. There is much consideration about global culture to be discussed, as many of these small events affected the entire globe (i.e. US Ping Pong team going to China).

Wikipedia also briefs us on the significance of each event in the song here.

This clip embodies global culture to me, because all of these events have a greater significance than just those involved or those in the geographic location of the person or event. For instance, although the Berlin Walls location is in Germany, the effects were felt worldwide. 

Questions:

• Which of these people/events do you think most affected the entire world? Which most affected the United States the most?
• What kind of affect do you think this song had on Americans when it came out?
• It also nearly topped the charts in the UK. Do you think they viewed it differently than Americans?
• And lastly, but most arguably --- if we didn't start the fire, then who did??

Lyrics: (courtesy of Metro Lyrics) 

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray 
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio 

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television 
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe 

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom 
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye" 

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen 
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye 

CHORUS: 
We didn't start the fire 
It was always burning 
Since the world's been turning 
We didn't start the fire 
No we didn't light it 
But we tried to fight it 

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser aand Prokofiev 
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc 

Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron 
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock" 

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team 
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland 

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev 
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez 

CHORUS

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac 
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai" 

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball 
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide 

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia 
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go 

U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy 
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo 

CHORUS

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land" 
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion 

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania 
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson 

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex 
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say 

CHORUS 

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again 
Moonshot, Woodsto/ck/, Watergate, punk rock 
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline 
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan 

"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide 
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz 
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law 
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore 

CHORUS: 
We didn't start the fire 
But when we are gone 
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...