Submitted by: Submitted by streetklan
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Category: US History
Date Submitted: 04/01/2012 08:21 AM
Running head: Cold War Era
Unit 2: Assignment
NAME
SS310 – Exploring the 1960’s
Prof. ………..
Cold War Era
The Cold War was an important event in our history. Reason being is that it shaped political ideology, foreign policies, impacted our economy, the Presidency and created an uneasy climate among Americans. The United States had been suspicious of the Soviet Union since the 1910’s, but became allies with them when Russia was invaded by the Nazi party in WWII. After WWII, the conflicts and suspicions arose again. Our government did not want the Soviet Union to take over Europe and run a communistic government because the fear was it would lead to Global Communist growth. The introduction of the atomic bomb separated the two superpowers even more. In 1949 the first Soviet atomic bomb was detonated in the Soviet Union. Shortly after that President Truman approved development of the hydrogen bomb and changed the entire U.S. National Security policy (Truman Library, 2012). It was more than just the Soviets that threatened the Communism spread; Cuba and North Korea had an influence during the Cold War as well.
Starting with President Truman the anti-communist propaganda began. Campaigns were started to rid the American government of what were called “reds”. Anyone who advocated communism was prosecuted with the Smith Act of 1940; numerous government officials received a target on their backs. The pointing of fingers in our government bled into the American civilian; it became a game of blame between everyone. Movie stars were blacklisted and many predominant figures were blamed for being a “red”. It was chaos. Americans became frantic and paranoid; constantly looking over their shoulders. With the threat of atomic bombs and “communists living in America”, the American people started preparing for war.
Threats to Americans came from different countries but all stemmed around bombs, missiles and war. It wasn’t necessarily the fear of...