Cold War Dbq Essay

The Cold War lasted decades and tensions continued to heightened. Trepidation spread among American citizens about the future of their country and world. Would communism take over or would the United States stand their ground and push for democracy? Following the Second World War, the Cold War caused the American people to fear the growth Communism, an economic depression, and a possible nuclear war, yet the Eisenhower Administration successfully addressed these concerns and implemented ways to reduce these fears. First and foremost, the American people feared that communism would spread and take over governments in other nations beyond the Kremlin. If communism took over any American State, it “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and political independence of the American States, endangering the peace of America” (Source B). If communism reached America, war could ensue and democracy would be greatly threatened. This fear of communism fed into McCarthyism which consisted of false accusations of people as being communist. American society went into mass hysteria out of will to avoid communism. Eisenhower acknowledged this stating, “[communism] makes us act almost hysterically, and you find the hysterical reactions” (Source A).

For example, in 1953, the United States was spending 68.1% of the total government spending on defense. Moreover, there was a 5.3 billion dollar deficit in 1953 (Source H). The arms race and development of modern weapons did not help this serious situation. This gave Americans a real fear of an economic depression. Yet, President Eisenhower addressed this and in 1956 he signed a public law resulting in the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. This would provide thousands of jobs which could help reduce unemployment and the chance of