The Cold War was a time of fear for the American people in the aftermath of the second World War, but also was a key period in which different presidents began and led various programs to fight Communism, both at home and abroad. President Eisenhower was elected in 1952, and various actions he took throughout his two term administration both assuaged and increased American fears related to Cold War problems. Eisenhower’s policies and programs of the Cold War included MAD and McCarthyism, which caused domestic fears, Brinksmanship and the creation of highways to carry military equipment through the Federal Highway of 1956 in case of foreign war, and his creation of NASA and the National Defense Education Act of 1958 for a technology race with the Soviet Union.
President Eisenhower implemented policies in order to keep Communism and Communist threats of war out of the United States, but these policies caused much fear in the American people concerning Soviet bombings and Communist spies. One such fear-inducing policy was McCarthyism, which was began by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and involved blaming innocent people for Communist activity in America, and President Eisenhower did not stop this incrimination of guiltless U.S. citizens. Eisenhower states in Document A that investigators either implementing McCarthyism or working for groups such as HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) were spreading hysteria among Americans, as they feared spies and deceit, as well as being accused as such by people who implemented McCarthyism. Paranoia of being thought of as, or blamed for being a Communist caused much conformity among Americans in order to seem “normal”, as well as a return to religion and traditional family values. Desp...
... middle of paper ...
...etrimental. Eisenhower’s programs of MAD and the allowance of McCarthyism were detrimental to life in America, as they increased fear, and had minimal effects on fighting Communism abroad. The policy of brinksmanship was helpful for avoiding war with the Soviet Union, but also increased domestic fear of bombs and death, while Eisenhower’s creation of national highways was a huge economic and travel advantage to Americans at home, as well as provided a way to fight Communism through transport of weapons and use as fighter plane runways. Lastly, Eisenhower’s creation of NASA and the National Defense Education Act was effective at creating and educating about space and science technology to oppose the Soviets, while his spending on missile programs allowed for the research and production also produced weapons by which to fight Communism in war against the Soviet Union.
After the end of WW2, two major governmental institutions, the USA and the USSR, with conflicting political ideologies and agendas, set forth to dominate each other in international politics. This period of time, also known as the Cold War, initiated an era of crazed hysteria in the United States as these two governments frequently clashed and bitterly fought. As a result, the frightened public grew delirious as the world grew dangerously close to a calamitous nuclear war, which ultimately prompted the Eisenhower administration to hinder the spread of communism and encourage the U.S. population to rapidly pursue higher education for the future welfare of this nation.
Almost instantly after the end of World War Two, the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to tear away at the thin bond formed by the two counties' alliance in the war. McCarthy and many other republican politicians believed that the democratic party, along with President Harry S. Truman, were not harsh enough on the communist party and they strongly opposed Roosevelt's New Deal. When the Republicans took control of the presidency in 1952, "McCarthyism," as it is now known. This new movement, McCarthyism, accused some Americans of being communist’s sympathizers and people that were suspected o...
Eisenhower’s foreign policy was about containment and trying to discourage other countries from joining it by giving them financial and military aid. When he realized that containment itself was not enough to stop the Soviet expansion, he adopted a policy which he called massive retaliation whereby the U.S. was prepared to use atomic weapons if they were to be attacked. He tried diplomacy to develop relation with the Soviets even agreeing to join other leaders in Geneva Switzerland with the intention to calm the temperatures between the two nations. When diplomacy didn’t work, he signed a bill that allowed countries to request economic and military help from the U.S. if they are being attacked by a communist nation. Cold War did not end until after Ronald Reagan’s time as president when he challenged the leader of the Soviet to take down the Berlin wall which was the most recognizable symbol of the Cold War. At this time, the Soviet Union was disintegrating and its influence in Eastern Europe was waning fast bringing the war to an
Through the 1940s and 1950s, America was beleaguered with anxieties about the menace of communism arising in Eastern Europe and China. Profiting out of such worries for the nation, young Senator Joseph McCarthy made an open charge that hundreds of "card-carrying" communists had penetrated the United States government. Although his allegations were found ultimately to be false and the Senate reproached him for improper ways, his ardent shakeup heralded as one of the most tyrannical eras in 20th-century American politics. While the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAA) had been formed in 1938 as a body to resist communists, McCarthy's charges enhanced the political nervousness of the epoch. The suspicious chase for moles, scandalously known as McCarthyism, made the life and work of a number of important cultural names in the U.S difficult, being branded as champions and supporters to leftist causes.
During the cold war, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union.
During the Cold War from 1945 to 1953, the civil liberties faced many challenges as the citizens of the US faced and lived in a lot of terror. The Cold War in 1945 to 1953 brought about a period of tension and hostility due to the feud between the United States and the Soviet Union. The period began with the end of the Second World War. The situation acquired the title for there was no physical active war between the two rivals. The probability of the tension is the fear of the rise in nuclear ammunition.
In 1980, it seemed like the United States was not as dominant in the world as it had been before. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union began after World War II. The two nations had joined forces as members of the Allies, but tensions arose after the war. The Americans were very worried about the spread of Soviet communism, and tried to prevent it with a policy of containment, where the United States would protect countries from outside oppression. The Cold War also expanded to include the race between the Soviets and Americans to create atomic weapons. Furthermore, there was a race between the two countries to put the first man in space, which was accomplished by the United States in 1961 (“Cold War History”). The Cold War was a standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union to try to prove their dominance in the world. Each country wanted to have more power and diminish the power of the other. At home, Americans were paranoid with the thought of Soviet spies and communists hiding amongst them, dubbed the “Red Scare.” President Richard Nixon and the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic A...
The Soviet Union began to view the United States as a threat to communism, and the United States began to view the Soviet Union as a threat to democracy. On March 12, 1947, Truman gave a speech in which he argued that the United States should support nations trying to resist Soviet imperialism. Truman and his advisors created a foreign policy that consisted of giving reconstruction aid to Europe, and preventing Russian expansionism. These foreign policy decisions, as well as his involvement in the usage of the atomic bomb, raise the question of whether or not the Cold War can be blamed on Truman. Supporting the view that Truman was responsible for the Cold War, Arnold Offner argues that Truman’s parochialism and nationalism caused him to make contrary foreign policy decisions without regard to other nations, which caused the intense standoff between the Soviet Union and America that became the Cold War (Offner 291)....
The Red Scare and McCarthyism had begun Paranoia, disloyalty, people losing jobs. The Red Scare and McCarthyism both made everything else worse. Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. At the end of the month when they get their paychecks they both end up with the same amount of money it is not fair, right? but that is more or less what McCarthyism is. During the 1950s, there was a great amount of paranoia and the government technically speaking did not confide in anyone else and falsely accused other people (Essay). The government was so paranoid that they had background checks on almost everyone and many people were fired because of it, not because of disloyalty or that they were suspicious they were fired because of other things such as being homosexual. More than 100 people were fired because of being homosexuals (Essay).
The attitude of the citizens of the United States was a tremendous influence on the development of McCarthyism. The people living in the post World War II United States felt fear and anger because communism was related with Germany, Italy, and Russia who had all at one point been enemies of the United States during the war. If the enemies were communists then, communists were enemies and any communists or even communist sympathizers were a threat to the American way of life. "From the Bolshevik Revolution on, radicals were seen as foreign agents or as those ...
Dwight (Ike) David Eisenhower the thirty-fourth president of the United States of America, and former supreme allied commander during World War II. In 1953 when Eisenhower took office the world was in a state of panic, tensions were rising with the spread of communism and the Soviet Union’s development in nuclear warfare. Truman’s policy of “containment” (the act of putting US forces on the ground to contain communism and the Soviet Union) just was not appropriate any longer, it was now time for a new policy and a new approach. Eisenhower’s military background proved useful during his presidency. A new policy arose and “brinkmanship” (Eisenhower’s policy to threaten enemies with the atomic bomb forcing an opposing nation to stand down) became the United States technique in dealing with the Cold War. President Eisenhower used his presidency and policy of “brinkmanship” to
Both Truman’s and Eisenhower’s governments were engaged in the Cold War, and contributed to increased tensions with Russia. Truman was the initiator of the containment policy, which was implemented throughout the duration of the Cold War. This policy was put into effect in order to prevent the spread of communism.
The McCarthy Era, a name given to the time period were Senator McCarthy set off an era of paranoia and accusations, was a time period full of fears that the threat of communism was not from the presence of the Soviet Union, but from communists living within the United States. Many individuals during this time period were deported, despite being legal citizens, and socially shunned for suspicion of being affiliated with communists. Alger Hiss was a notable figure, during this time period that was accused of being a Soviet spy and was later convicted of perjury. This fear of communists was not fed by McCarthy alone, John Foster Dulles presented ideas of the dangers of Communism, as stated, “If world communism captures any American State, however small, a new and perilous front is established which will increase the danger to the entire free world and require even greater sacrifices from the American people.” (Doc. B). President Eisenhower, however, attempted to settle these fears, by claiming that there is too much hysteria surrounding communism (Doc. A). President Eisenhower attempted to reassure the American people that the U.S. is perfectly capable of protecting its self against
terms: "This is a war of light against darkness. freedom against slavery, Godliness against atheism." But the President refused to undertake an effort to "roll back" Soviet gains in the years after WW II. Early in his administration he embraced a policy of containment as the cornerstone of his administration's. Soviet policy. Eisenhower rejected the notion of a "fortress America" isolated from the rest of the world, safe behind its nuclear shield.
McCarthyism, in a more depth analysis, was a reaction to Communist China and the fear that instilled within the American citizens of the possibility of democracy being overruled by the Communist Party. Government personnel were mainly targeted because of their association and influence of delegating rules and regulations that impact the function of the government and the American citizens’ role within the country. Communism emphasizes total government control and aspects of censorship, which was impractical for the United States during the time due to the need for democratic jurisdiction and citizen involvement. In response to multiple communistic uprisings in Europe, the United States of America and its citizens suspected that communism thoughts and actions would soon encompa...