Cold War Mr Reichow Summary

The Cold War spanned approximately 44 years, from 1947 until 1991. Although the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union (also known as the USSR) never resulted in actual warfare, the “war” itself instilled a deep sense of fear in the hearts of Americans and others around the world. One of the many Americans deeply worried by the possible outcome of the Cold War was Mr. Christopher “Kit” Reichow. Mr. Reichow is a retired engineer from Lockheed Martin of 32 years. Mr. Reichow’s account on the Cold War exposes the chilling realities of living through the Cold War, which textbooks cannot depict. In order to better understand the Cold War, it is vital to hear Mr. Reichow’s account of his experience living through the Cold War as a young kid fearing the Soviets, and later growing up to be a young man who worked in a military company which manufactured nuclear warheads in preparation for war against the Soviet Union, because his

To Mr. Reichow and his classmates in Los Angeles, the most tensed point of the Cold War for the American people was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was really earth-shaking and almost started another world war. The Americans and Soviets came on the verge of firing their missiles at each other: the Soviets would have fired their missiles at the US from Cuba, and the Americans would have fired their missiles at the USSR from Turkey. For the Americans, Cuba was only ninety miles away from mainland US and the Soviet missiles could have easily targeted and destroyed major East Coast cities, such as New York City and Washington DC. American fear rose out of the possibility of the destruction of some of America’s major cities. This crisis led to an increase in American fear of the possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, which would have taken a great toll on American and the world