Which sentence from the excerpt best reveals the context of
the excerpt?
Once these disparate parts were held together by a
common enemy, by the fault lines of world wars and the
electrified fence of communism.
With the end of the cold war there was the creeping
concern that without a focus for hatred and distrust, a
sense of national identity would evaporate, that the left
side of the hyphen-African-American, Mexican-
American, Irish-American would overwhelm the right.
And slow-growing domestic traumas like economic
unrest and increasing crime seemed more likely to
emphasize division than community.
Today the citizens of the United States have come
together once more because of armed conflict and enemy
attack.