The threat of nuclear war in the 1950's was real and was one that was on the mind nearly every person in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After the end of the Second World War the world can be seen to be split into two sides, the East and the West, Communism and Democracy. After the Second World War the Soviet Union became paranoid with the West as well as the United States become paranoid of the Communist East, and after the Soviets had made their first nuclear bomb this created massive friction between the NATO alliance and the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc. Only after the soviet union had obtained the hydrogen bomb and began to stockpile nuclear warheads in the 1950's did the real fear of nuclear annihilation begin to …show more content…
This sense of paranoia that can also be accredited to the culture or nuclear preparedness. Families were advised to build fallout shelters and in schools children were told to duck and cover in the case of nuclear disaster. This sense that nuclear annihilation could happen at any moment was well established in American culture. However in Britain the fear on the bomb can be seen as lesser than that of the USA. As Peter Hennessy expresses in his book Having it so good, Britain in the fifties 'The wider, personal implications of the bomb perhaps burnt their way into the collective British psyche more slowly than might have been expected'3. Towards the beginning of the nuclear arms race, a lot of information was not disclosed to the public, such as the amount if casualties caused if the Soviet Union dropped bombs on Britain which was around 1,378,000 people, and the size of the bombs used was around 1.6 megatons of TNT. Although there were some civil defence films that tried to paint a picture of nuclear war none of them captured the threat of war and many films trivialised it as Spencer R. Weart writes 'the stage was dominated by tales of mutant tribes and so forth'4 this caused many people to downplay the threat of nuclear war due to the lack of decent portrayal of nuclear war, Weart writes 'Nearly three decades passed without any technically
In his work “The Illusion of Unity in Cold War Culture,” Alan Brinkley seeks to analyze the varying views of culture in the Cold War era. To start, he presents the views of scholars from the Cold War era, who said that class boundaries were disappearing and social problems were being solved. These scholars claim that significant cultural changes, ones that were said to unify all classes, came from the postwar economic growth; this theory is known as “consensus ideology.” Consensus ideology saw America being freed from its social problems because there is no fight for materialistic goods, in turn, creating fear of going back to a place where this conflict exists. The discussion of consensus ideology is an interesting idea, but I feel the
Meagan Peacock brought up three main points in her discussion on the Soviet and American Politics of Childhood during the Cold War. She discussed how children played a pivotal role in the events of the Cold War. Children were widely used in American and Russian Propaganda. She argued that both sides shared the same project, the propagandist had more in common with each other than with their countryman, and the people of the two countries had more in common with each other than with their state.
The Cold War created a certain desire for security, which led to conformity during the immediate years after WWII. This desire for security was brought about by McCarthyism, a theory based on the claim that Senator McCarthy had a list of hundreds of communist that had perpetrated the United States government. People became terrified that they too may be singled out, or identified as different, therefore their only response was to fit in, to conform. Americans conformed every aspect of their daily lives to fit the standards of those around them.
As the Korean War came to an end, superpowers America and the Soviet Union continued to test atomic bombs, more powerful and effective. However, after tests on an atomic bomb that had been fused, also known as the hydrogen bomb, the leaders and scientists of both countries were shocked by the results (technological advances are not always the best for the future). The immense destruction caused by this bomb would annihilate the entire human population if set in a war (which is why war is dangerous). At the same time, leaders came and went, each with their different ideas and opinions, as some believed that the bomb could only be used in total war, while others thought that the bomb could only be used as a way to threaten other countries into
The Cold War propelled the United States of America into a seat of previously unattained power in the world . American citizens spearheaded the push toward advancement in their search for the epitome of happiness: the “American Dream”. Post-war paranoia was driven by the supposed threat of the spread of communism, which Americans feared could interfere with the freedoms and liberties the founding fathers fought to achieve. This paranoia eventually controlled the thoughts and actions of citizens everywhere. The Second Red Scare spread across America like a virus, leaving a trail of dread and despair in its wake. The fear of the growing communist regime, a lack of trust between citizens and the government, and a zealous streak of American pride drove the U.S. toward internal conflict and potential devastation.
The looming threat of communism and nuclear war was everywhere in the United States. Schools, households, businesses and practically every place in America had a safety protocol associated with a nuclear attack. Early siren warning systems, fallout shelters, radio broadcast systems and civil guidance material became a crucial part of everyone’s’ memory. Duck and Cover , a movie that guides children on what to do in the case of a nuclear disaster, was one of the many forms of propaganda that perpetuated the Cold War terrors. It is estimated that over 200,000 fallout bunkers were built by 1965 and in 1963, U.S. House of Representatives voted for the use of 190 million dollars for the creating of over 70 million public fallout shelters. The heavily influence of nuclear threat-based information into the eyes of the public had an impact on the way domesticity differed from Australia.
The Cold War was one of the most influential wars of time. It affected areas all over the world. One of the places where its impact was the strongest was in the United States. The Cold War affected America in many ways. Their culture overall took a turn. Movies, music, education, fashion, etc. all changed over the course of the Cold War.
Other than military race, culture was an unusual battlefield during the Cold War. The Soviet Union financed tours of artistic shows, such as ballets, dance troops, and symphony orchestras to influence public opinion abroad. In response, the US national security agencies encouraged Hollywood to produce anticommunist movies and pressured producers to remove the dark aspects of American history such as racial discrimination from productions (Foner 907). The federal government secretly sponsored overseas publications, concert and art exhibits to promote the idea of American freedom of expression. Through the cultural war, Americans were shaped to become very anti-communist by the 1950s. The Cold War reshaped the understanding of freedom. Whatever
Established by Karl Marx, class-conflict theory focuses on the class struggle and change in the social class. The class-conflict theory sounds the most reasonable to me, I believe the role of social class made a huge impact on the Cold War. Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin both have different views towards class struggle. Class-conflict was usually mentioned between socialists, who would refer to a class and relate it to the means of production. The means of production also made a huge impact towards the social class. However, the resources in factories and other means of production cause many conflicts between the classes. The social order between each state has dominance over another class. The center of attention between the conflicts mainly
Terrorist attacks were on the rise around the world and even on the United States.
The rise of the Soviet Union (USSR) as a new world superpower brought tension between the USSR and the United States. Although the 1950’s was generally nonviolent, confined to only minor conflicts, there was a threatening, looming tension between the two world superpowers. The tension reached its peak when the US completed its first successful hydrogen bomb test. A second, more powerful bomb was successfully detonated in 1954 by the US. Public fallout shelters were established in major cities, and bomb drills were practiced as frequently as fire drills today. The nuclear war that Lord of the Flies suggested was not out of the realm of possibility at its time of publication
The United States had basically opened the largest can of worms the world had ever seen that it could not close. The country that seemed to go toe to toe with the US in nuclear weapon research was the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). The US and the USSR competed in a nuclear arms race which started after World War II and ended in the 1980s. It was only until the 1963 Partial Test Ban did the two countries even begin start to ease tensions, but there was still a long way to go (Tucker). For what seemed like an eternity, the people of America waited with faded breath to see what would become of their country’s nuclear arms race. This time period was known as the Cold War, and in this time period nuclear policy was always at the forefront of the news. United States President Harry Truman, the man who had called for the first atomic bomb to be dropped defended his decision even after all the events that transpired afterwards because he saved so many lives and ended the war earlier than it would have gone on (Long). Truman saw the first bombing and the aftermath as a necessary evil. In Truman’s mind, the atomic bomb was retribution against the Japanese for their attacks on Pearl
The end of Cold War did not bring an end to the threat of nuclear
come to a nuclear war. This event it really kind of woke the United States and
Before 9/11 Americans thought that the United States was one of the biggest powers in the world. They thought that they were untouchable. However as the towers were falling and the pentagon was hit they realized that America was like every other country. The United States citizens have become aware of the fact that the world is a dangerous place, and the United States was not immune to attacks from foreigners. This created something known as the fear of terrorism which had a mental affect among many of the United States citizens. According to study done by the University of Albany in 2007.