For decades after the second World War, the American people believed that the United States was engaged with the Soviet Union in a “Cold War” that could escalate into a nuclear crisis at any moment. The media infiltrated the people with the terror of bombing, and the paranoia of being labeled “red,” or Communist. The presence of this war without weapons was felt in the homes, in the schools and cities, and even in the entertainment industry; the entire country, from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s was in a state of constant anxiety.
During and after World War II, the United States and some of her closer allies were suspicious of the Communist influence and intentions of the Soviets. When the victors of WWII met to decide what was to be done with Europe after the war, differing opinions from the Capitalists and the Communists led to extreme tensions. The media outlets began to take this tension and spread it to the American people, causing a climate of unrest. When the US began to take preventative measures against the Soviets, the measures were viewed as hostile, and the Soviets retaliated by securing the Communist regime in half of Europe. (Rapoport, 37) In March of 1948, the Cold War, fought with words rather than weapons, had begun.
In the beginning of the Cold War, it appeared that the United States had the upper hand with their nuclear power. The bombs President Truman ordered to drop on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the war had demonstrated to the Soviets that the United States not only had the power, but the desire to use drastic measures to secure victory. Several years later, in 1949, the military planners of the US found out that the Soviets had made their own fission bomb and tested it successfully. To keep the upper hand, during the ’50s, the US took their research further in producing a hydrogen fusion bomb that was five hundred times more powerful than the fission bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, the United States’ superiority was short-lived: a year after the new hydrogen bomb’s success, the Soviets developed their own version. (Kreis)
It is necessary to pause at this point and deliberate what may have caused the sudden movement from suspicion and tension to the apparent brink of nuclear warfare in so few years. From the perspective the media gave the American people, the war was being “fought” with words and nuclear standoffs so that the United States could come out as the victor against an aggressive Communist nation. Through the mass media outlets, anti-Communism was pushed so aggressively that it became the belief during that time that even asserting “live and let live” would make one Communist. One of the means this paranoia was spread through the United States was through a practice known as McCarthyism. While McCarthyism got its name from Senator Joseph McCarthy, the man appointed and responsible for the blacklisting and accusations of Communism that occurred in the US during the Cold War, Schrecker describes the term as “a synonym for the anticommunist political repression of the early Cold War.” (46)
Senator McCarthy ensured that the American people were in a constant state of fear at being considered “red.” He was a master of media manipulation, holding news conferences at key times of day so that he would be broadcast both morning and night. McCarthy charged federal employees with shifting the political status of America towards Communism, “blacklisting” many in the government. (Fried, 119-121)
However, McCarthy did not stop at accusing those in federal functions of Communism. He spread his influence to Hollywood, blacklisting actors, directors, and producers. Those who were blacklisted lost all support from studios and were unable to find work. Once McCarthy had condemned someone, their career was literally destroyed. Films began to be produced that implied the threat of Communism. These films featured science-fiction elements, such as aliens invading and conquering the earth, a metaphor for the Soviet threat that was constantly felt during the times. This subtle message may have contributed even more to the paranoia that spread to the American people. (Prono, 162-164)
Television was a new technology during this time, and watching McCarthy constantly on the news left an impression on the people. Stations only broadcast edited and approved programs that would not incite Communist accusations. Most of the war programs during that time sought to glorify warfare in the eyes of the people. However, when ABC ran its program See It Now, hosted by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, the station and its anchors offered a much different approach to news coverage that allowed the public to make up their own minds about the McCarthy hearings. (Lee, 187-189)
This immediately caused McCarthy to blacklist Murrow, but the journalist offered rebuttals to every one of McCarthy’s claims, and, in the end, was responsible for the gradual decline of Senator McCarthy’s reign of media terror.
Around the time of McCarthy’s power, President Truman signed a significant document known as the National Security Act of 1947. This document was responsible for creating the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, but most significantly, it created the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA would play controversial role in later developments during the Cold War.
In the year 1950, the United States became involved in the Korean War, seeking to push the North Korean Communists back when they attacked the South Koreans. The American people refused to support a war in Korea, but regardless, Truman sent troupes to aid the South Koreans, backed up by forces from the UN. The battle continued until 1953, when an armistice was finally reached, and Korea was divided into the North and South. Shortly after this war ended, the United States became involved in yet another overseas battle: the Vietnam War.
It became an increasing trend with the US to become involved in the development of the smaller countries, such as Korea and Vietnam, after World War II. The Soviets also took an interest in the same countries, fighting against the side the United States sought to protect. The American people were even more against the Vietnam War than the Korean War; therefore, after constant fighting and staggering fatalities, and the inevitable fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese, the United States withdrew, losing the war.
The United States became involved in the Vietnam War on the pretense of saving it from a Communist regime, but the military leaders during the war confessed to being unfamiliar with the reasons for combat. This proposes the question: why was the United States involved in a war that could not be won, and was not supported by alliance between Vietnam and the US?
In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy was elected as President, and was sworn in to office in 1961. The first issue that occurred and subsequently embarrassed Kennedy during the beginning of his Presidency was the Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion. An order by previous President Eisenhower had been to overthrow the Communist Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, and assert a Democratic government in Cuba. In order to do that, the United States would back up the Cuban insurgents, allowing them the assistance to overthrow the current political regime in their country. Kennedy stood by this plan and ordered it to commence, with one vital exception: no United States air power. Without that crucial backup, the insurgents were overwhelmed, and Kennedy was forced to negotiate with the Cuban government to have the survivors released.
The following year, a national crisis began, once more involving Cuba. A US spy plane flying over Cuba had photographed pictures of Soviet missile sites under construction in the country. Kennedy had few choices available: attacking the missile sites may cause the Soviets to launch several missiles, which could strike virtually any area of the United States. If Kennedy were to delay, the sites would be finished and fully operational, and the Soviets may switch from defense to offense. Regardless of the peril, Kennedy’s advisors urged him to attack the missile sites, but Kennedy chose to negotiate with Soviet spokesman Nikita Khrushchev, and eventually quarantine the island of Cuba. The negotiations eventually led to success and a mutual agreement between Kennedy and Khrushchev, wherein the United States removed missiles in Turkey, so that the Soviets reciprocated by removing their Cuban missiles. Additionally, the United States swore that they would never invade Cuba.
Kennedy had demonstrated exceptional ability as a negotiator, and continued in his presidency to seek peaceful alternatives to open warfare. He intended to stop the War in Vietnam and also to disband the Central Intelligence Agency before the end of his term. However, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated while on a trip in Texas. The Warren Commission, which investigated the case, accused the lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald of the crime. Oswald was an alleged Communist and supporter of Castro. Before he could be brought to trial, he was shot by Jack Ruby, and the Warren Commission closed the case.
However, the assassination of President Kennedy can lead us to analyze the minority opinion of the Cold War, and perhaps why the United States has continued to be involved in wars among Third World countries. As stated previously, the people of the United States have been led to believe that the Cold War was “fought” so that Democracy, and not Communism, would be spread throughout the world.
President Kennedy was assassinated after he made it apparent that he not only wished to withdraw from the Vietnam War, but also that he wished to render the Central Intelligence Agency completely void. The manner of the circumstances of the assassination, the witness accounts, and even the direction from which the fatal bullet entered Kennedy’s head, all point to the fact that there could not have been a single gunman, shooting the President from behind. Indeed, these circumstances, later brought to light by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, suggest that Oswald may have merely been a diversion, and that conspiracy in the very United States government led to Kennedy’s assassination.
Vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson was immediately inaugurated, and rather than follow the lead of Kennedy’s previous plans, Johnson kept the Central Intelligence Agency intact, and continued the war in Vietnam.
What, then, could be the purpose of ongoing tensions with Soviets and wars with Third World countries? It is a fact that the economy of a country flourishes in wartime. A constant state of demand for products does not allow overproduction and under consumption to occur, leading to a depression. However, with the development of nuclear weapons by the United States, and the Soviet reciprocation, another large-scale war like the first and second World Wars would result in nuclear holocaust. There is not winner in a nuclear war.
However, if the American public were led to believe, and therefore support, a battle between “good and evil,” or Democracy and Communism, then the government would have the public support to engage in tensions and small skirmishes with the Soviets, without openly declaring World War. But if we were to truly, critically, examine the basis for such conflicts as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the issues of Cuba, Berlin, and many more smaller powers the United States and Soviets fought over, it becomes apparent that there really are no victors, only poorly coordinated battles due to miscommunication that led to armistice and negotiation at best.
Even the “space race” had less to do with scientific achievement, and more to do with proving superiority of weapons placement. If a satellite, equipped with a missile, were to be launched by either the United States or the Soviet Union, than either country could bomb any point of the other in a matter of moments, leading to a much more hazardous situation than the Cuban Missile Crisis was.
It could be that the United States engaged in the Cold War with the Soviets for two reasons. The first reason would be an issue of economics: if nuclear weaponry had to continually be built, the government would continue to give money to the “defense effort,” thereby allowing the economy to continue without depression after World War II.
The second reason would be that the United States must constantly assert its military capability, and desire to use it, to the Soviet Union. The United States may have fought wars that it could not win, simply to illustrate to the Soviets that they would fight for no reason whatsoever. A reputation of indiscretion, coupled with extreme nuclear power, would have made the Soviets cautious to engage the United States in a third world war.
Even after the Soviet Union fell in the early ’90s, the United States has continued to become involved in smaller world powers, such as in its constant struggle in the Middle East, and even the ongoing War in Iraq today. This stands as potential proof that the Cold War was fought not for “good or evil,” but rather to maintain the American economy and assert the United States’ military superiority. There may be more truth in the minority opinion rather than the majority view of the Cold War, and why it was fought.
The development of world history, and the United States’ role in that future world, will be the only evidence of whether or not the Cold War was fought for Democracy or economics.
Works Cited
Fried, Richard. McCarthyism.” Americans at War. Ed. John Resch. Vol. 4:
1946-Present. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 119-121. 4 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale. Genesee Community College – SUNY. 1 Dec. 2007
.
Kreis, Steve. “Lecture 14: The Origins of the Cold War.” The History Guide:
Lectures on Twentieth Century Europe. Revised January 12, 2007. 11/28/2007
Lee, Daniel. “Television, 1946-Present.” Americans at War. Ed. John Resch. Vol. 4:
1946-Present. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 187-189. 4 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale. Genesee Community College – SUNY. 1 Dec. 2007
.
Prono, Luca. “Popular Culture and Cold War.” Americans at War. Ed. John Resch. Vol.
4: 1946-Present. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 162-164. 4 vols. Gale
Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale. Genesee Community College – SUNY. 1 Dec. 2007
.
Rapoport, Anatol. “Death of communication with Russia?.” ETC.: A Review of General
Semantics 56.2 (Summer 1999): 241(2). Academic OneFile. Gale. Genesee Community College – SUNY. 28 Nov. 2007
.
Schrecker, Ellen. “McCarthyism: political repression and the fear of communism.”
Social Research 71.4 (Winter 2004): 1041(46). Academic OneFile. Gale. Genesee
