Essay On American History

The cold war was the period that followed the Second World War. It officially began in 1945 and was characterized by intense rivalry and distrust between the one time allies in the war, United States of America and the Soviet Union. Although the cold war involved intense power struggle and wartime strategies, there was no direct physical encounter between the two countries. They opted for utterances that sought to undermine each other forms of governance and economics as well as support opposing sides in a series of proxy war in countries such as Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and Nicaragua among others. The war sparked by the disagreement on the fate of the countries liberated from the Nazi rule in Europe with the US supporting democracy and USSR championing for communism.
The cold war had adverse effects on the Americans as it spelt a period of fear and violation of civil rights. In the midst of this paranoia, there was the rise of McCarthyism which was a system championed by the senator of Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy. It involved claims that communism spies working in cohort with the USSR held positions in the US government. As a result, a series of probes on the suspected individuals followed and led to thousands of Americans losing their jobs. The fact that USSR had succeeded in making an atomic bomb and had information about American A-bomb had worsened the tensions between the countries affecting all social aspects in the world. Governance was also affected as leaders could not ignore the cold war. For instance, many leaders including President Eisenhower were against McCarthy’s tactics but could not react as he was enjoying the national spotlight. His popularity came to an end after he shifted his attack to the army leading to dwindling support and eventually censoring.