Memories of Cold War

MEMORIES OF THE COLD WAR

Sherry Swanson

Kaplan University

MEMORIES OF THE COLD WAR

The Cold War was a contest between the USA and the Soviet Union. It led to the existence of thousands of nuclear weapons, two universal ideas in conflict and two different self-images. The US was making the world safe for democracy whereas, the Soviet Union was for world communism.

I asked my mother what she remembers and this is what she said, “Yes I remember the Cold War. The evening news describing the weapons and watching the troops march by on TV. I also remember the bomb drills. When you hear a siren, you go under your desk and cover your head. If you were in the hallways or outside you were to get next to a wall and duck down. As we got older, of course, we knew this would not help us at all.”

I, in some way, remember doing drills like my mom did very early on in school. Another thing I personally remember is a movie called “The Day After”. It was based on the nuclear exchange of the Soviet Union and the United States. Very interesting to look back and try to remember times 20-30 years ago and try to compare to today. I’m surprised we haven’t had gas mask drills with the chemical attacks happening.

Another of my interviews was my uncle. His response was, “I remember the news talking of Soviet-US relations, military comparisons and the tensions between the two. It was a real threat. While today the threat of terrorists are real, it is pale to comparison to the threat we lived under with the US and Soviet Union. The Cold War may have turned hot occasionally; it never reached the boiling point. Because of this, even today, we need to take threats very seriously.”

It’s interesting listening to my mom and uncle talk about these times in their lives when we are going through almost the same thing with the Middle East and now Syria. Right now, like my uncle said, it’s getting hot. Hopefully we do not hit the boiling point as I don’t see how that is...