The Cold War: The Progressive And Oppressive Era

The Progressive and Oppressive Era America
After World War II ended in 1945, the United States economy flourished but was quickly launched into the Cold War with Soviet Union. Despite a lack of actual combat, the Cold War led to the advancement of new technology as both countries tried to best the other. This new economically prosperous and technologically advanced era created a new American society, full of “unrivaled prosperity with crippling poverty, expanded opportunity with entrenched discrimination, and new lifestyles with stifling conformity” (American Yawp 26.1). The mass industrialization of the 1950s burdened lower class society, whose work had been made obsolete, and this upset created further divide in the country. Industrialization

Once communist paranoia became prominent in 1950s America, people began to find new ways to disassociate with communism, so they immediately claimed communism was against Christianity. In 1954, the line “one nation, under God” was added to the Constitution and in 1956, “In God We Trust” became America’s national slogan (American Yawp 25.4). This attempted to tie America to its long background of Christian values, and it declared itself separate from the communism that was invading the country. However, communists across America felt misjudged and misunderstood. Kurt Vonnegut reflects this attitude in his novel Player Piano when the rebel leader states that he is “an enemy of the Devil, a man of God!” (Vonnegut 334). Vonnegut, along with many other communists, believed that socialism and communism are “ no more an evil word than ‘Christianity’” (A Fading Old…), but other people label it as un-Christian and evil because they don’t understand their values. Communists want a world where people are given equal opportunity and reward because people all deserve the same for their work (A Fading Old…). They recognize the constant and growing separation between classes, and they want to stop the exploitation of the poor that allows for this equality, but others feel threatened that communists want to take away what they’ve worked hard for, and they declare this immoral and evil (A Fading Old…). People should not be forced to accept anyone else’s ideology, but the mistreatment and degrading of the communist worldview is representative of the American people’s lack of understanding of communist