Mccarthyism And The Cold War

“The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want.” The Cold War was initiated by two opposing government types and ideologies leaving their marks on other nations. They also competed in various “competitions” to assert their dominance over each other. The United States and the Soviet Union were the competing nations in this war as the U.S wanted the spread of Democracy and the Soviet Union wanted Communism. This war did not result in physical damage or bloodshed, but it led to various dangerous weapons like nuclear bombs and missiles. It did, however, cause wars such as the Korean War as well as the Vietnam War. It also caused dictatorships such as in North Korea and Cuba. To sum up, the impact of the Cold War on life during

Mccarthyism started when Republican senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to have the names of communist suspects, “Joseph McCarthy was an undistinguished first-term Republican senator from Wisconsin until, in February 1950, in the midst of a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, he lifted a sheet of paper and claimed to ‘hold in my hand’ a list of 205 known communist currently working in the American State Department.” As mentioned in this quote, Joseph McCarthy caused this mass hysteria known as McCarthyism when he held up the names of 205 suspected communists working for the government. The film industry of the time also portrayed the effects of the Cold War in American society, " American film noir portrayed the loneliness of individuals in an impersonal world- a staple of American culture for many decades- but also suggested the menacing character of age, the looming possibility of destruction.” This quote illustrates how the film industries would create movies depicting fear as to what the Cold War might have lead up to. Containment also affected life on a worldwide scale during the 1950’s and 1960’s,”The American commitment ultimately helped reduce Soviet pressure on Turkey and helped the greek government defeat the communist insurgents and, in the process, established as a basis for American policy that survived for more than forty years.” This quote uses the defeat of communism in Greece as an example of how Containment prevented communism in some countries, but pushed others towards it. All in all, the effects of the Cold War could be seen through McCarthyism, the film industry, and