Cold War Impact

Submitted By farahchah
Words: 1860
Pages: 8

Farah Chahine
Mrs. Morrison
English 3 Honors
2 Mar. 2014
The Impact of Cold War on American Society
An American-Soviet combat, the “Cold War”, dominated the second half of the 20th century. It also resulted in America being the super-power nation of the world and the end of communism. While the US quietly battled for the popularity and respect of their political view, the nation’s society changed. The Cold war was different from other wars because it was as much as a propaganda war as a war with the military involved. During the Cold War, America’s view of communism and fear of inevitable nuclear fallout had a drastic impact on American politics, culture, and the daily lives of people.
“The Cold War started to develop after the second World War when the United States and the USSR no longer had a common goal of Hitler Nazism” (Boniface). There were two sides of the cold war, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which included USA, France, Great Britain, and West Germany, and Warsaw Pact, pro-Soviet countries – USSR and all countries controlled by the USSR. “The Russians who feared further western aggression eastwards established a series of ‘buffer zones’ to protect the mother land borders. Later reinforced the Warsaw Pact” (Boniface). The Cold War was a time after WW2 when the Soviet Union and USA were fighting for world domination and influence.
These 2 rivals were rivals for which the ideologies of Capitalism vs. Communism. Communist believe that In Communism, the community or society owns everything in production. On the other hand, in capitalism, everything in production lies with a private owner. Capitalism is a self-made economy, communism is a government run economy. The Americans believed in the “Domino theory” and that Communism spreads like disease. “The Soviet-American combat, known as the ‘Cold War’ hung heavy over global affair for more than 40 years” (“Causes and Effects”)
Though USA did not directly invade the Soviet Union in battle there were Korea and Vietnam fracases. In both countries communist troops fought armies trained and funded by the USA. Through the Kennedy years, US troops trained S. Vietnamese troops to battle the Reds. The fear of Communism hit straight at home. The USA tried to contain communism in several ways. The Marshall Plan helped countries economically so they won’t go “red”. The USA would help give aid and equipment to the economies of Europe recover and rebuild themselves
From World War II. The US did try to help the USSR, but Stalin did not accept, he said that the aid was politically motivated, that the Marshall Plan was an attempt by the USA to gain popularity to the people in the Soviet so that they would support the capitalist view (which it kind of was). “The American general George Marshall went to Europe. He said every country in Europe was so poor that it was in danger of turning Communist! Europe was ‘a breeding ground of hate’” (Clare). The Cold War had an effect on the domestic and foreign policies of the United States. Formed in 1938 HUAC was a committee to investigate both communist and fascist activities in the United States.”HUAC created a black list, which stigmized those who were deemed to be a supporter of communism” (Richard). HUAC was a relatively minor committee before Hoover joined in on it. Under Hoover’s leadership, the FBI sent agents to wiretapped thousands of telephones. There was also the Truman Doctrine. In 1947 that Harry Truman made a policy that the USA would intervene to help any country that was being tried of a takeover by another. The Truman Doctrine was significant because it showed that America was prepared to resist the spread of communism in the world. Another Foreign Policy was the Eisenhower Doctrine which was created to defend the Middle East against attack by any communist country. One of the cases that actually helped by making HUAC was the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case. “In 1950, during a surge of Cold war hysteria, Americans