Cold War Influences On United States

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Karnkumar Patel

Mariel Isaacson

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Cold War influences on United States

The two superpowers that emerged after World War II were United States and Soviet Union. Both of their ideologies contrast greatly, which initially started the Cold War. The Soviet Union wanted to expand their communist influence to other nations, while United States wanted to prevent this influence from spreading. The Cold War transforms life within United States which gave rise to, start of McCarthyism, adopting the containment policy, and the positive and negative effects of arms race.

The biggest fear in United States during the cold war was the accusation of being a communist. Suspicion and apprehension of the Soviet Union spies led to a second Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism. The Senator Joseph McCarthy increased fear of communist spies infiltrating the democratic government. McCarthy investigated many political officers, but during those investigation many constitutional right were broken. McCarthy made it clear to the officials that the only way to prove that they weren't communist was by naming other member of the party. Many accusations that were put on the government officials resulted in losing jobs and tarnishing reputations. For example, McCarthy gave Wheeling speech, February 09 1950, West Virginia, which addressed the senate and proclaimed that he was aware of 205 government officials being communist. In his speech he emphasized the importance of standing strong against communism and to punish those who support it, his accusation of the people he mentioned were without any solid evidence. McCarthyism made it difficult for Soviet Union spies to infiltrate the democratic government, but in the process many innocent victims were falsely accused. McCarthy wasn't the only one who was falsely accusing, the HUAC targeted many Hollywood actors, writers and producers being communists. The HUAC used the smith Act of 1940, to prosecute people in giving names of suspected communist. Those who reported and named, whether it was true or not, were allowed to go back to work and the one that didn't were blacklisted from the entertainment industry. This fear of communism gave rise to an awareness of Communism , so it doesn't spread in United States.

The worldwide spread of communism has always been a great fear to the United States during the Cold War, as a result Americans adopt the Containment policy. Containment policy made it possible to contain and isolate communism, by using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies. This policy gives aid to countries who are being forced to the influences of communism. For example, United States, France and Britain controlled the west side of Berlin, while Soviet controlled the East of Berlin, basically west was democratic and east was communist. Stalin wanted to spread communism to the west side of Berlin, so he achieves this by creating a blockade, which prevents food and fuel from entering the city. Both United States and Britain refused to lose west Berlin, which results in the Berlin airlift. For almost a year, planes carry food and supplies into west Berlin every few minutes. This airlift made it possible for west Berlin to survive the Soviet Union's blockade. Soon after, the blockade fails to accomplish its goals, so Soviet Union lifts the blockade and admits defeat. The determination to isolate and to fight communism is the success of the containment policy, which allows United States to prevent the spread of communism. The Domino Theory was also a major factor in Containment policy, which helped to prevent communism from spreading. The president's News conference of April 7 1954, Dwight D. Eisenhower describes the domino effect, if one country falls under communist influence or control, then its neighboring countries would follow, like a row of dominoes. Eisenhower spends much of his speech explaining the significance of Vietnam. If Vietnam turns into communist country than it would spread throughout southeast Asia. As a result, United states had to intervene in Vietnam, to stop communism from spreading throughout southeast Asia. The United States was willing to fight for any country that needed help against communist influence no matter what it cost to do so.

The most dangerous part of the cold war was the arms race, in which the United States and the Soviet Union competed with each other for military power and nuclear force. This nuclear and military rivalry resulted in production of deadly weapons, such as the hydrogen bomb. Both superpowers needed to develop advance technology to observe each other's progress on nuclear and military power. One incident that shows how serious Soviet Union takes its privacy of its airspace, occurs on May 1, 1960 where soviet Union shoots down an "U.S. U-2 spy plane that was responsible for observing 1,200 miles of soviet airspace" (nuclear weapons and the arms race). The mass amount of weapons made people fear of possible war that could occur any given time. This fear also led to building fallout shelters all over America, to protect from bomb blasts. The Arms race had some positive aspects to it, such as the advancement of technology. For example, America was greatly in shock when Soviet Union had launched Sputnik, the first earth orbiting satellite. This motivated United States to invest money on space projects, that eventually landed a man on the moon. Technology was originally used for thing such as nuclear missile control, but this technology found way into common society utilities such as, personal computers, cars with GPS, and microwaves. Without the Arms Race, United States wouldn't have had technological advances that exist today.

There are many reasons accounting for the beginning of the Cold war, but the animosity between the two ideologies and the conflicts from economic policies. Communism was feared and hated in the United States which caused the second red scare, causing many innocent victim to lose their jobs and reputation. The adoption of Containment policy was a way for United States to prevent spread of communist influence. The Arms race with Soviet Union created a life of fear of being bombed in United States, but it also led to high tech innovation in society. This effort to oppose Soviet Union's influence both in United States and abroad made it possible for democracy to beat communism.

Work Cited

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