The Effects Of Fear And Anxiety On The Cold War

When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.

The Cold War, which was considered the “years of maximum danger,” lasted from 1949-1962. This period brought an increasing sense of danger to America because the Soviet Union came into possession of an atomic bomb in 1949; an idea many Americans thought to be impossible unless the Soviet Union had a spy in the United States, which they did. Because the Soviet Union had an atomic bomb, a nuclear war became a reality. In Kenneth Rose’s “One Nation Underground” he told of rising issues associated with the Cold War and the threat of nuclear bombings. The Cold War, in conjunction with the inventions of (total destructive) bombs, generated new dangers, fears, and morality issues among Americans, which led to further increased fears.

From 1953 to 1962, people were asked what the largest fear and problem is in America. For those 10 years, war was the biggest fear (document 3). When Russia had built their first atomic bomb, Americans feared for their lives. They started pouring money and resources into building bomb shelters, to prepare for nuclear war (document 5). During the Cold War, America’s defense budget jumped 1940 to 1960. It started at 18% and grew to 52% by 1960 (document 8).

The fears of the American people regarding the Cold War in the aftermath of the second World War were numerous and strong, growing in power as Americans began to fear not only the looming threat posed by the Soviet Union but also potential communist activity within the United States itself. The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully recognized and addressed a number of these fears, passing legislation which improved domestic and international defence capabilities and creating an atmosphere of relative comfort and prosperity within the nation itself. However, despite the efforts of the Eisenhower administration, a strong sense of fear pervaded much of the United States as the Cold War escalated into a greater, more critical

The Cold War was a competition. The US and the Soviet Union raced to become the world’s number one superpower, building up their militaries, improving their arsenals, and developing more advanced weapons. However, weapons in the war were not limited to only nuclear warheads. The weapons used in the Cold War were nuclear warheads, and hope and terror caused by propaganda.

Nuclear war became the biggest fear in the late 1950s. Even today it still sits in the back of people's minds. The cold wars arms race began when the soviet union had the nuclear bomb. Americans grew paranoid, so in return they

The USSR “perceived this as a serious threat” (Brezhkov), in comparison, Stalin's actions were viewed as threats to the West. With increased tensions between the two nations, the Cold War was soon to break out. Moving forward, in the year of 1952, the United States had successfully exploded a new hydrogen bomb “The detonation destroyed the island and sent up a three-mile-wide mushroom cloud” (Glider-Lehrman). Seeing the successful testing of a new bomb, that was supposedly stronger than an atomic one, would put any nation in a defensive state. Amidst the Cold War, the hydrogen bomb test of 1952 would result in the Soviets being constantly aware of the major threat the US has now imposed for many years to come.

After WWII, the United States had devastated Japan by unleashing two atomic bombs. The shock and fear these weapons invoked in countries such as, Russia, caused a panic. The United States started an “arms race”. The Soviets had the fear of America using the devastating weapon on their home country; creating new weapons to rival the United States (Document A). With this new threat, American leaders started a global mission to end communism. The Soviets made attempts to spread its communism to developing countries, allowing them to have access to new resources. The United States formulated plan to extend military force and financial aid to other European countries (Document D).

By the end of the war, the need for uniting to overthrow Japan and Germany had ended. After World War II, the United States began having an unsettling partnership with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was an alliance that was necessary to defeat the Axis powers: Germany, Japan, and Italy. The United States believed the Soviets wanted to have dominance in the world, but the Soviets thought the same of the U.S. If Communism spread across the world, the U.S. was afraid that they would lose their freedom and democracy after giving up so much to keep it during World War II. They wanted to make the Nazi Germany into a tradable, capitalist democracy. The Soviets wanted to destroy Germany and create more communist s on the west border to avoid being vulnerable to an attack. The U.S. government felt threatened by the expansion of communism from the Soviets to Eastern Europe, which had spread to China, Korea, Vietnam, and China. As communism began to rapidly spread, the Soviets went to extreme measures to scare their rival. David Ropeik (June 25, 2012), an author and an instructor at Harvard, explains in his writing, The Historical Roots, and Impacts, of our Nuclear Fear, that in August 1945, Americans sent bombs to destroy the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This not only killed hundreds of people, but also created extreme fear during World War II. Americans soon began to pursue the communists

After the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers and subsequently a period of tension and hostility arose, known as the Cold War. During this time, a new possibility of complete nuclear destruction that would claim the lives of many emerged, therefore “the easing or relaxing of tensions” on both sides was needed, this period would be known as detente. Both countries had been guaranteed mutually assured destruction as they had both managed to stay ahead in the development of nuclear arsenals. By the late 1960s the Soviets had surpassed the United States in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) by 1,300 to 1,054. Although the U.S was still ahead

The forty-five years from the dropping of the atom bombs to the end of the Soviet Union, can be seen as the era of the new conflict between two major states: United States of America (USA) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). According to Hobsbawm, ‘cold war’ was the constant confrontation of the two super powers which emerged from the Second World War. At that time the entire generation was under constant fear of global nuclear battles. It was widely believed that it could break out at any moment. (Hobsbawm, 1994) The consequences of the ‘power vacuum’ in central Europe, created by the defeat of Germany, gave rise to these two super powers (Dunbabin, 1994). The world was divided into

The Cold War (1941-91) was a time of political and military tension between Soviet Russia and the United States. During this time, there was a great deal of fear between the 2 international superpowers as they both possessed nuclear weapons capable of wiping each other out. The Americans were in constant fear of Communism and Soviet spies. The paranoia was exacerbated by some politicians who suggested that Soviet spies were everywhere. This fear made some Americans to accuse their own neighbors of being Communist sympathizers.

Starting in the 1949 with the explosion of an atomic bomb(RDS-1) in Russia and ending with the dissolvement of the Soviet Union, the nuclear arms race was an extremely tense few decades that forever changed the United States in many ways. The Arms Race is exactly what it sounds like; a race to amass more advance weapons. During these four decades, the Nuclear Arms Race affected Americans socially through instilling a variety of emotions ranging from fear, to awe of the power of the nuclear weapons, economically through enlarging governmental role within the economy and mostly importantly, the political impacts were more involvement required by the U.S government in world affairs and as a force against Russia.

After World War II, a new enemy was in the horizon: technology. In the 1940’s, the United States was the leader of the “Free World” paving a path and setting an example for the rest of the world to follow (Maland 191). Americans believed the misconception that “American society was sound, and that communism was a clear danger to the survival of the United States and its allies” (Maland 191). The U.S. maintained a policy of containment by fighting communism wherever it may be, and in a show of might in 1952, they detonated the first hydrogen bomb (Maland 192). Only a short year later, the mighty Soviet Union announced that they too had the Atom bomb (Maland 192). And, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the United States became alarmed that they were falling behind in science and technology. Because the Soviets had the same capability to annihilate the world with the bomb as the United States, tensions between the two countries increase daily. But, this new war tactic brought into question man’s ability to make decisions of nuclear proportions with

The Cold War was a response to the perceived threat by the United States that Communism would interfere with national security and economic stakes in the world. It was a perceived threat by communist countries that the United States would take to the world. During the Cold War, the United States, Russia, and other countries made efforts to avoid another world war, while warring in proxy in other lands. The devastation caused by the hydrogen bombs exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the next technological advancements became only deterrents to the public. Governments had their own agenda which would result in worsening the strain between nations. The United States hid behind a curtain of nationalism resulting in increased