Cold War Over?

There are many ways in which the Cold War's effects still change our lives today. For example, President Obama just signed the START treaty with Russia in order to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons each country has in its possession. The nuclear weapons created were made during the Cold War era and they still have affects on us today. I think its very good that the two countries are reducing their nuclear capabilities because it shows other nations that they aren't as aggressive as they seem.
The Cold War also involved the Civil Rights Movement. Many influential leaders like Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did all they could to ensure that the constitutional phrase "every man is created equal" was in affect and they worked at this goal whether it was in a peaceful way or an aggressive approach. There are still some Civil Rights issues concerning racism that still affect us today. Whether its racism in real-estate, racial jokes or job opportunities based on race. Civil Rights issues and racism that are present today are nowhere near as horrible as they were during the Cold War era, but they do still exist and they still harming many people today.

United States During the Cold War

During the Cold War, America's main goal was to contain Communism and keep its existence in as a few places as possible. To make sure this goal was accomplished, America adopted containment as its foreign policy. There was an intense fear of Communism in the U.S. and the fear that other countries would also convert to Communism. This was called the Domino Theory. Americans believed that if one country became communist others would follow and the result was compared to the falling domino effect. Tension began to rise tremendously and to ensure safety, Americans adopted Brinkmanship. Brinkmanship was the willingness to go to the brink of war without an actual attack. United States did not want this to result in the third world war because it would be the first war fought with nuclear weapons and the results was unknown and terrifying. America struggled to keep Communism away and they did whatever possible to contain it as well as they could. They sent soldiers to Korea, Vietnam and China in order to keep communist beliefs out.
America also had a lot of faults and controversial actions in the Cold War era. They made decisions that many believed weren't the best. United States was also the superpower that contributed to a lot of war tensions during the 1950's. This was because the U.S was offering much help through the Truman and Eisenhower Doctrines in return of support for democracy. Offering these services and wanting support out of it caused nations to choose sides which in turn resulted in much tension for everyone.

Truman Doctrine

After the war, Britain's economy was badly hurt and they could no longer aid non-communist countries liked they did before. Therefore, Britain asked the Untied States to take responsibilityof aiding nations. Harry S. Truman, the president at the time, asked congress for $400 million for economic and military aid for Turkey and Greece. Truman then declared that the U.S should aid all countries resisting communism or "outside pressures."
Though the doctrine seemed fullproof, it also had many critics. The people that were aginst the Truman Doctrine believed that it would interfer with iternational affairs or they were against supporting any dictators, even if they were anti-communist. Even though not everyone agreed, congress decided the doctrine was necessary in order to prevent Communist influence and between 1947-1950, $400 million was sent to Turkey and Greece.
Giving other nations an opportunity to be aided makes them have to choose sides. They can either have help from the United States in return for their promise to not be under Communist rue or be a Communist country. Countries were pressured into choosing sides by the Truman Doctrine and the Soviet Union could decide to compete for nation's promise.

Sputnik Stirs Up Some Trouble

On October 4, 1957, Soviets used ICBM to put the first satellite into the Earth's atmosphere. Sputnik traveled around the earth at 18,000 miles per hour and circled the globe every 96.2 minutes. The launch of Sputnik by the Soviets caused a major blow to America's confidence. Americans felt extremely inferior to the Soviets and also believed they were falling behind in science and technology. In order to keep up with the Soviets, United States made drastic changes to their educational system. Schools were now focusing on improving their science and math courses.There was a lot of competition between the Soviets and the Untied States to see who would be the first in technological advances. Both the Arms Race and the Space Race caused much tension between the two nations. United States was the first to produce the hydrogen bomb but they were working many scientists to the bone in order to catch up in the space race. After many failed attempts such as "Flopnik" and "Stayputnik", United States finally succeeded to put their own satellite in space on January 31, 1958.

H-Bomb Causes Tension to Explode!

The Soviets and Americans were in constant competition to be pioneers in technological advancements. America's prior success with the atomic bomb led them to start work on a much more powerful explosive after Truman's approval on January 31, 1950. On November 1, 1952, the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb which put the the atomic bomb to shame by having 67 times as much power. The success was cut short though because just a short year later the Soviets exploded their own hydrogen bomb. This scared many Americans because they no longer had an advantage and now the Russians had as much power as they did. The comfort of knowing the United States would have an advantage if it came down to an attack was gone and the scramble to keep up with all nuclear advancements was on.

U-2 Incident Causes Stress to Mount

America needed to be sure that they were safe from communist Soviet Union and to ensure this, Eisenhower felt it was mandatory to know the Soviet's every move. In Eisenhower's attempt to keep tabs on Soviet's actions, he proposed "open skies" at the Geneva Conference. Open skies would allow Americans to fly over the Soviet Union without getting shot down and vise-versa. It seemed like a good idea because who owns the sky, right? But Khruschev didn't agree with Eisenhower's solution and he ensured Eisenhower that if an American plane was to fly over the Soviet Union it would indeed get shot down. The U.S still didn't know what was going on in the Soviet Union so in order to find out, Eisenhower approved CIA, secret, high altitude flights over Russian territory. The U-2 planes were used for the missions and they were designed to take detailed pictures and to fly high out of reach of antiaircraft fire.
Though the CIA intended that these flights remain a secret, the Soviet Union soon finds out about America's spying. Eisenhower immediately wanted to discontinue the flights in order to allow for negotiations with Khruschev. Though he was convinced the U-2's flights were no longer safe, he was persuaded by John Foster Dulles to have one last flight. On May first, pilot Francis Gary Powers flew a U-2 plane over the Russian's territory for the last time. Powers was shot down by Igor Mentyukov after four hours of observing the Russians. United States denied the shooting and stated that Power's plane had disappeared while making weather observations but Khruschev came out with the truth. He announced that Francis Gary Powers was shot down by a soviet rocket and declared that Powers was captured and that he confessed to America's spying (which America later found out was a lie.) Eisenhower took full responsibility after the incident and Khruschev was so upset that he stormed out of the summit. Now the 1960's started with as much tension as ever.

Containment Can't Contain Nerves

Due to America's intense fear of Communism, it was obvious that the government needed to make some changes in order to put Americans at ease. Officials decided it was time to do something about the Soviet's threat and on February 1946, George F. Kennan proposed the policy of containment. Containment was an effort to stop Soviet's threat in its tracks by creating alliances and supporting weaker nations in return for their promise of anti-communist beliefs. Americans wanted to keep Communism in the Soviet Union to prevent its spread to other countries and to accomplish this goal containment was necessary.
Adopting containment as United State's foreign policy seemed to make the Cold War real and not a fear or figment of one's imagination. The foreign policy made tensions rise drastically during the Cold War.