American Policies During The Cold War

In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy turned Americans against each other by installing fear in the people regarding toward Communism. During this time, in fact, people were getting blacklisted even if they weren't communist. In an incident at the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, McCarthy delivered a speech. The situation involving the Senator escalated when he stated that the State Department is infested with Communist. In this point in time, due to the false allegations, people went on a decade long period of witch hunts. Sam Roberts, the author of “A Decade of Fear” stated that in fact, “...thousands of alleged Communists in the U.S. were arrested and deported during what became known as the Red Scare.”

Some policies that affected the Cold War include the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the Internal Security Act.

There have been various ideologies, events, and origins of the Cold War that have dominated American foreign policy from 1946 to 1989. The Cold War was a time of conflict between between the U.S. and the USSR; the two Superpowers saw each other as a threat. Thus they continued to fight to preserve their positions. Each side became involved in events such as the Korean War. They each stood behind the other nations fighting. Together the rise in communism, a rise of the Soviet influence dominated American foreign policy, and the creation of the Warsaw Pact.

At the end of the 1940’s and the beginning of the 1950’s, the United States were in the midst of the Second Red Scare and a fear that Communism might over throw the American way of life. Cold War tensions were at an all time high, which only fueled the widespread fears of Communist subversion. It was here that Senator Joseph McCarthy became a public face when he began making claims that the U.S. Government, as well as many other areas of the country, including the entertainment industry, had been invaded by Soviet and Communist spies, looking to destroy America from within. Hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hollywood Blacklisting, and anti-communist activity from the FBI soon followed. McCarthy was under intense analysis

McCarthy of Wisconsin, spent years trying to expose communists in the government. During the Cold War, few cases of disloyalty convinced many Americans that the U.S. government was ran by traitors and spies. His thought of anyone being a communist ended up in prison or alienation. Americans were always "fearing what unwise investigators will do to us here at home" (Document A) and what their "hysterical reactions" could end up in. This fear was given insufficient attention to by the Eisenhower Administration, as the communist investigators were backed by the government. A great example of the fears Americans suffered from in the Cold War, American fear of communist investigators in the nation, and the Eisenhower Administration did not attend to

The Cold War took a lot of affect on the United States Domestic Policy and American society. Domestic Policies were changed due to the world affairs, and the American society had a dramatic change from the war. The United States Government became extra secure and protected. Many new political cartoons were created from the fear of Communists and other big events and things that were happening during this time period. War was the leading problem in the US during this time period. Many citizens became upset and protested. Also, many American citizens were scared because they heard many people talking about the war,and what was happening and took as many measures on safety as they possibly knew and could. Later, through science, we have learned that many of their tactics when it came to protecting themselves would not even have worked.The United States spend a lot of extra money during this time period to keep up with the war. (DBQ questions)

Following the Second World War, the United States had gotten involved in the Cold War. The United States and Soviet Union had become the two superpowers, vividly proving their strengths in the most recent war. These strengths, however, caused a rivalry to form between the two, and would affect the United State’s domestic policy and American society throughout the Cold War. Communism and the threat of war were the most prominent aspects which affected the United States both economically and socially.

The Second Red Scare occurred during the early 1950s in America just after the Second World War. This event is what inspired the term McCarthyism, which refers to the defamation of people's character or reputation by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations, especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges. The then senator of Wisconsin, Senator Joseph McCarthy inspired this term because he was the biggest supporter and campaigner of the anti-communist propaganda that took America by storm during the late 1940s. After top secret information about the government’s weapons was handed to the soviet union by an unknown infiltrator, popular fear of communist agenda taking over the American government lead to the then President of the states issuing an executive order known as “The Loyalty Order”. This order allowed a federal organisation known as the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and McCarthy to carry out mandatory investigation of all federal workers to

Right after the Second World War ended, the prolonged Cold War between communism and capitalism began. This war lasted about 45 years between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the fall of the common enemy, Nazism, these two nations became instant global rivals. They fought over human rights, democratic elections, individual liberties, and religious freedom. America wanted every nation to be free like itself. This push for the Soviet Union to be the same started the Cold War. Just like any other war, after it was over it brought many different new challenges to America, like great lost from war, the Red Scare, and new threats.

Although the Soviet Union and the United States fought together during World War II against the Axis Powers, the relationship between the two grew bitter going into the 1950’s Cold War. The Cold War left a dominant impact on the U.S. and American living throughout the 20th century. The fall out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created various issues that United States dealt with (Suddath). The United States was a capitalistic country, while the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, was lead by a strong communist influence. The expansion of Soviets into Eastern Europe fueled most of the fear the U.S. had of Russia, that they would attempt to influence many more countries.

The Cold War was brought on by the differences in economic treatment and political ideology between the US and USSR that could no longer be ignored once the common goal of fighting together as WWII drew to a close and ended. The two powerful countries saw the other country’s actions, or lack of actions, as a power grab and a threat to their own national security. Threats of nuclear attack caused many issues between the US and USSR. The two countries acted to prevent the expansion of each other’s political ideology into other countries.

His accusations generated national interest and gained him a significant amount of fame, or rather, infamy. However, it was later found out that the piece of paper he’d been holding during that speech had merely been his laundry receipt (Bates). Even so, McCarthy was already well on his way to becoming one of the most notable communist “hunters” in U.S. history.

Joe McCarthy enjoyed a short reign in the spotlight of American politics in the early 1950s. His tactics, the baseless accusations of Communist ties, would come to be called McCarthyism and they set the tone of the American crusade against the ‘threat’ of Communism for years to come. The era in which the heavily anti-Communist McCarthyism reigned in America was one marked by fear, suspicion, and tightly geld ideals. Many found themselves under fire from the political witch hunts and more than one life was destroyed by the accusations brought upon it. The illegalization of the Communist movement and the misfortune that a Communist branding would cause were all unfortunate products of a fallacy filled mindset what stripped Americans of their

The Cold War was the name given to the time period from 1945 to 1991. After World War II, tensions began between the United States and the Soviet Union. Fighting between the United States and Soviet Union did not happen directly against each other. Instead they fought with arms races, space races, and spying. Both superpowers set aside their differences to defeat Adolf Hitler, even before the war the United States distrusted the Soviet Union. The United States disliked the way the Soviet Union ran government. They believed that the Soviet Union wanted to overthrow the non-communist governments.

After World War II, the United States had effectively become the most powerful and influential country in the world both militarily and politically. During America’s rise to power, however, hostilities mounted between America and the Soviet Union, resulting in a fierce rivalry. The Cold War, which never involved direct military confrontations between the two nations, involved of the struggle to contain the spread of communism, extreme anti-communist attitudes in America, and a reemergence of the civil rights issue.