Fears Of Communism : The Cold War

After World War II the next threat was the Soviet Union and the growing amount of communism. The fear of communism breed the conformist 1950’s, which created suburbs, consumerism, “organization men”, domesticated women, car culture, and explicit gender rules (I&J, 43-58). Communism engulfed everyone so much that people were afraid to be different. The culture of the 1950’s was not only seen in their everyday lives but shown through advertisements.

Americans became very fearful of Communism and rightfully so. By 1950, fear of Communism was reaching a fever pitch as depicted in a staged communist takeover of a tiny Wisconsin town. American fears of Communism had dated back many years and by 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia these fears were being realized. More recently however, by March 1945 U.S. government agents had secured classified documents belonging to Amerasia magazine, a pro-communist magazine. Generally, loss of the American dream was a driving force perpetuating fears of communist takeover. Specifically however each U.S. citizen had their own version of fears. For example a business person might fear wealth being distributed equally under a system of communism

The early Cold War impacted the United States on the American home front in a number of ways. Many Americans lived in constant fear that they would be bombed at any moment and the paranoia that communism would take over the U.S. government. Yet, the Cold War also brought about positive transformation to the nation economically, politically, and socially. These changes helped calm people's fear and trust was regained in each other, and in the United States government.

Between 1945 and 1960, the United States was confronted with a colossal predicament. A Cold War had emerged between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This war did not involve any direct attacks between the two, instead indirect confrontations. Subsequently, the war took a massive toll on the U.S. An era of high tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union posed a communist threat to America.

During the Cold War there are several events and foreign policy interactions that affected the us. The first subject is the way that the United States and USSR handled nuclear weapons and the fear that people had about them. The Space Race was a time of technological advances in which the US was afraid of what russia would do if they had control over space. Joseph McCarthy and the start of McCarthyism was the start of heavy anti communist views. The tension and fear of the Arms race struck fear into both sides leading to several events caused by each side. Tension and fear during The Cold War had a significant effect on the technology, political views, events, the way people lived, and foreign policy.

The last way that we were affected by the Cold War was the fear of losing. When the Soviet satellite, Sputnik, was launched we poured our education funding into science and math to catch up to Russia in the Space Race. We hoped that this would help us win the Space Race (document 6). When the Vietnam war started, we created a draft to put every eligible man over the age of 18 in a draft. This was to help us assure a win in the war with more manpower (document

In comparison to during WWII, the cold war played a major part in changing the basics of the economy and the government. The economy boomed due to the baby boom and the change in transportation in society. The government of the cold war was affected by events such as the civil rights movement and the red scare. The economy in WWII was solely booming due to the war, but during the cold war, it was pushed by poth post war industry and other reasons.

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)

The Cold War was a state of political hostility, lasting from 1946 to 1991, between Communists Soviet Union and Capitalist Western powers. Two generations worth of tension was filled with propaganda, hot wars, threat of nuclear attacks, and developments in missiles and space technology. Domestic policy and American society changed in the years of the Cold War: more money was being allotted to the defense budget, committees were being created to root out any communists working in Hollywood or the government and Americans were living their life around the fact that they could enter into a nuclear war at any moment.

The Cold War was marked by a seemingly ever continuous rivalry between WWII allies in a geopolitical and ideological war, each nation focused on their own agenda in a clash of political and economic structure and views for the future of the world. For much of the second half of the 20th century the Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society. Cultural battles ensued between the superpowers had as much if not more

Over the course of the history of the United States of America, there have been numerous threats from various international countries. And with these numerous threats come different responses from the United States. Such as the French and the British during the 1790s, the U.S. government created the Alien and Sedition Acts The U.S. also had conflict with the British over the territory of Oregon,which ended in the creation Oregon Treaty. Later during World War 1, the U.S. , under President Woodrow Wilson, declared neutrality at the beginning of the war but were very straightforward that is the Germans continued the engaging in unrestricted submarine warfare against American ships supplying goods to Allied nations would result in an American Declaration of War. Over time the U.S. has become more upfront and stern with their reactions to threats from international nations. And it expanded to post 1945, when there was an impeding spread of Communism in the United States. And the way the the U.S. responded was similar to the their past course of response.

During the Cold War, the United States did their best to stop the spread of Communism. Several incidents such as the Korean War, the birth of McCarthyism, led the United States to the brink of war with the Soviet Union over Communism. One of the most pivotal moments of the Cold War was the Vietnam War. The United States joined the war to stop Communism from spreading to South Vietnam. This war had many Americans split down the middle as to whether or not they should be participating in the war. The Vietnam War is the biggest failure in American history.

Because of the sheer size of these pacts they would lead to negative and destructive conflicts worldwide such as the Vietnam and Korean Wars. While cultural effects of the Cold War were primarily domestic, political battles between the Soviet Union and the US were mostly fought on an international stage. Politically speaking, the US and Soviet Union were polar opposites at the end of WWII.

The United State’s Capitalistic and consumer driven way of life sat in contrast to the Soviet Union’s Communist and government centred economy. So much so, that the fear of Communists living in America began a panic known as the second Red Scare. Americans attempted to weed out Communists, with programs like the loyalty program which required government workers to state if they have ever been a communist; as well as the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). “...[The] (CIO) and United Auto Workers froze Communists out of leadership positions...” (Goldfield 805), along with this there were numerous trails and people assured of being a Communist. McCarthyism was another main reason the American public began exiling those assured of Communists; McCarthyism created a fear of these people, which allowed those accused to be black balled in their professions. One such example where the Hollywood Ten, which was a group of movie directors accused of being too soft on Communism.

The Cold War affected the countries involved by splitting them into two parts that turned against each other. Korea, Vietnam, and China were greatly affected by the Cold War; these countries had split into two parts because of their beliefs in communism. The north part of the country was the communist side and the south part was non-communist. The Cold War