Sarah Paroya D period I hate MUSH The end of World War II should have marked a period of relief in America but instead, it lead America into a completely different type of war called the Cold War. The Cold War was an ongoing state of political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This constant state of tension and fear had been embedded deep in the American public. The American people feared the spread of communism and nuclear war in the aftermath of the Second World War, while President Eisenhower addressed these fears by having strong domestic and foreign policies. The fear of communism carved a deep sense of mistrust in American people. They believed anything that was said and blindly followed people who were in political power without any basis of evidence. The fear of communism created a sense of “hysteria” (Document A) within the general public and even in people in government. This kind of hysteria caused the Red Scare, which was a period that Americans thought communists were working to destroy America. This mass fear of communism ruined people’s lives and made them turn against their own family and friends. Joseph McCarthy played an …show more content…
Especially since Eisenhower believed in massive retaliation, which was funding the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and less funding to the army. Eisenhower’s policy had backlash from both conservatives and liberals. As stated in Document E, “...whether a policy accepting the first blow may be the best one.” People believed that massive retaliation was not the best way to avoid nuclear war. Document E serves the purpose of showing the faults of massive retaliations and how in the grand scheme it isn’t a sufficient way to keep away from a nuclear war. If anything, it kept tensions high between the US and the Soviet Union and it questioned who would make the first
The Red Scare Analysis During the rise of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had been brought into an alliance due to both of their desires to defeat Nazi, Germany. Although the Soviet Union’s aggressive, antidemocratic policy towards Europe created tensions even before World War II had ended. That being said, they tolerated each other as much as they could but weren’t exactly friends. The United States government was initially hostile to the Soviet leaders for their decision to take Russia out of World War I and was opposed to a state ideologically based on communism. The main conflict between them was their inability to agree about communism.
Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin believed communism was the most daunting threat to the American government at the time. Moreover, most Americans had only heard of communism, but were generally unaware of the topic until McCarthy preached his opinions. After his speech to the Republican National Convention in 1952, American citizens suddenly felt a responsibility to rid the country of communists. Although the thought of communism did not pose a danger to the average American, McCarthy’s rampant speeches made unknowing citizens feel a sense of urgency toward the topic. One reason Americans heard little of communism is because the government did not want them to know.
The Red Scare quickly spread across the States as American people feared that communism would take over their country one day. The era had significant impacts on American society during the early stage of the Cold War. Shortly after the beginning of the Red Scare, a phenomenon which is known as McCarthyism appeared and shaped American politics. The anti-communist movement reached its peak in February 1950, when Senator Joseph McCarthy capitalised the fear by claiming he had a list of more than 200 communists working inside the American government.
During this time period, not long after the end of World War II, the USSR (Soviet Union) was on the rise, which led to the Cold War. The Cold War led to increased tension between the United States, and the Soviet Union due to competition and heavy conflict of interest. The involvement of the Soviet Union led to the dramatic fear of communism among the public after witnessing the horrific environment within the USSR. This helped develop McCarthyism, the idea of investigating, and accusing someone in power of being associated with communism. Joe McCarthy himself, the founder of his very ideal also gained much popularity within this time period due to many Americans fearing the rise of communist leaders and communism itself.
Containment also provided supplies and defended democracy in an area of adverse communist influence peacefully. Finally, containment helped the world dodge a full-scale nuclear world war and gave Russia a taste of its own blockade-flavoured medicine in the Cuban Missile Crisis. If George Kennan’s Long Telegram (discussed in Document A) had not been published, the US and democracy itself may have been oblivious to the Soviet Agenda. Kennan stated in Document A : “1. Stalin and the Soviets believe that communism is better than capitalism.
The Cold War caused people to question the United States’ government’s reliability and strength, which negatively affected America’s domestic affairs and foreign policies. Citizens lost respect and trust in the government and other civilians, due to several threats within the country and worldwide. People were left questioning their rights and safety due to the second Red Scare, which threatened the coming of power of communism within America. Various forms of propaganda advertised fears, causing panic to spread throughout the country. Russia’s gain of power throughout Eurasia showed off the USSR’s strength and abilities, threatening the Western Powers.
Once the American people saw one possible communist, the civilians thought they saw communists everywhere.
U.S. citizens were afraid that the Great Depression could return. Many Americans were tired of helping out other nations and just wanted the war to be over completely. John Lewis Gaddis, the author of The Cold War: A New History, is talking about the fact that just because the war was over, Americans were not necessarily at peace. There were many different economic and social factors that the United States had to deal with in the post World War II years. April 25, 1945
Fear, it causes people to be blinded by the truth. People can’t tell right from wrong. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show how no one could see what was right. During the 1950’s communism was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire, then it slowly made its way over to the U.S. This was known as The Red Scare.
The Red Scare promoted fear of a potential rise in communism. A commonly believed idea to the hawks, known as the "Domino Theory”, supported this agitation. This notion states if one country transitions towards communism then the surrounding countries
Response to Senator McCarthy’s “Enemies From Within Speech” With anti-communism being the dominant political issue during the Cold War, hysteria and paranoia spread throughout the minds of Americans. The “Enemies From Within Speech” delivered at Wheeling, West Virginia in 1950 by Senator Joseph McCarthy focused on worsening that national fear. Senator McCarthy used ethos, metaphor, and hyperbole to create the notion of disloyalty within the federal government. In order to persuade the American public in a convincing way, Senator McCarthy appeals to their ethics.
McCarthyism turned Americans against each other after WWII by claiming that Communists had infiltrated many areas of American life and government. In fact, “According to a local newspaper McCarthy dropped a bombshell: ‘The State Department is infested with Communists,” (para 3). In other words, this is the beginning of McCarthy turning Americans against each other. Paranoia started to spread through America which all this strongly affected Americans everyday life. McCarthyism was a result of American fear of communism in the 1950s.
In the 1950s, the United States was plagued by the Communist Red Scare and was defined by the McCarthy era. In this era, the American people were deathly afraid of the thought of Communism taking over the world. The very essence of Communist stood for everything the United States was not. The American people, at
People lived in constant anxiety of America falling to Communist control. The fear of infiltration rose when Mao Zedong led Communists to take control of China as well as the Soviets detonating the atomic bomb. This caused the anxiety and fear to increase because even some American Scientists didn’t believe that the Soviets had the expertise to do so. American citizens began to believe that communist spies had been able to steal American technology. The detonation of the bomb started drills throughout America.
During the Cold War, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was possibly the most dangerous moment between the United States and the Soviet Union. The discovery of nuclear weapons being installed in Cuba was from the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane who passed over Cuba and had photographed nuclear weapons being installed, which led to more tension between the two sides (History.com Staff 2010). The Cuban Missile Crisis was an important historical event that should be kept in the new textbooks in order for students to learn about how it affected America because politically, this was when the US and the Soviet Union came closest to nuclear conflict during the Cold War which could have started WWIII, environmentally, it led to the creation on the