[Writing Sample] Societal Impacts of the Cold War 1946-1991

The Cold War, so called because there was no direct military conflict or official declaration of hostilities, is generally considered to be the period following World War II and ending with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1991. Although they had been successful allies in World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union recognized that they held vast differences in ideologies and became bitter enemies (Lippmann, W. 1947). This was expressed through internal and external political propaganda, technological competition through the arms race and space race, and through proxy wars including revolutions in Latin America, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the conflict in Afghanistan.

World War II had brought about a feeling of patriotism and love of country in most peoples of the world, and many reflected upon the way of life they were fighting to protect. This often resulted in an idealized version of cultural and national identity, as well as thoughts of what could be. The propaganda of the Soviet Union heavily pushed the latter, selling its people on the potential benefits of Communism. In response, the United States pushed the notion of a nation blessed by God to counter the Soviets’ atheist doctrines, the rights of the individual over the powers of government in response to collectivism, and the superiority of capitalism over socialist redistribution of wealth.  This ultimately brought about the formation of Conservatism as it is defined in America today; according to historian Patrick Allitt, “before the 1950s there was no such thing as a conservative movement in the United States.” (Allitt, P. 2009).

On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit around the Earth, and the space race was born (Burrows, W.E. 1998). This provided both the Soviets and the United States to show the superiority of their political and economic systems through technological outcomes. The arms race was already well under way, with each nation trying to demonstrate their superiority through greater quantities of nuclear weapons, but the space race represented something different. It was more than just the ability to show strength through superior numbers. It was a reflection of who had the more scientifically advanced society. It also represented the hopes and dreams of many people that there was more beyond this world, and that those things were within our reach. The Soviets followed Sputnik by putting the first man into orbit. President John F. Kennedy, on May 25, 1961, followed that with a declaration that the United States would do no less than put a man on the moon by the end of the decade (Kennedy, J.F. 1961). On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned vehicle to orbit the moon. Their public broadcast back to Earth ended with a reading from the King James Bible. On July 8, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on its surface. The Soviets quietly abandoned their own moon program in 1970.

Although there were no shots fired directly between the Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War, there was blood shed through a series of proxy wars. In these conflicts, the two superpowers provided money, arms, training, and other support for third party nations in the hopes that the victor would remain a political ally and adopt the ideology of the backing nation. In 1954, the United States Central Intelligence Agency backed the coup d’état that ousted Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, because they deemed his policies to be Communist in nature and feared a Soviet toehold on the Western hemisphere. The Cuban Revolution, as an example, had Fidel Castro’s 26^th of July movement, a Marxist-Leninist faction, overthrowing U.S.-based dictator Fulgencio Batista and taking power on January 1, 1959, after five years of fighting (DeFronzo, J. 2007). The U.S. and the Soviets continued to use Cuba as a proxy in conflicts such as the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis.    The Korean War featured the U.S. and United Nations-backed South Korea battling North Korea, which was backed by the Communist People’s Republic of China with military aid supplied by the Soviets. The Vietnam War had U.S. backed South Korea fighting North Vietnam, backed by allies including the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union, North Korea, and Cuba. While the Soviets backed the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic of Afghanistan, the United States and other anti-communist nations backed the Muslim mujahedeen who sought to overthrow that government. This eventually led to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the conflict that has been described as the Soviets’ Vietnam (Garthoff, R.L., 1994).

By the 1960s, the façade of American patriotism had begun to crack. As the dead and wounded soldiers returned from Vietnam, many began to question the costs and whether that war was worth fighting. The civil rights movement and the women’s liberation movements brought social justice to the forefront of the America consciousness, and some wondered if perhaps there were a few good ideas within Communism, which nominally considered all people equal regardless of race or gender. To many, American ideology was beginning to feel oppressive and overbearing.

America’s role in the world changed over the course of the Cold War. Prior to World War II the United States was fairly isolationist, and it took a direct attack on Pearl Harbor to change both policy and the sentiment of the people (Prange, G.W., Goldstein, D., & Dillon, K. 2000). During the Cold War, the American military began to expand not to claim territory or aid allies under attack, but to enforce ideologies. It was no longer about claiming an island for its strategic location for trade or defense. It was not about defending or freeing people from oppression. It became a matter of spreading the America lifestyle, the American way of thinking. The American people became convinced of their own superiority, and backed it up with military and technological might.

By 1991 America had succeeded in its goal of stopping the spread of Communism. The Soviet economy was collapsing, and could only hope to survive by opening its borders and embracing capitalism. 20 years after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, however, the aftershocks of the Cold War can still be felt.  The Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan in September of 1996, thanks to the mujahedeen, and their support of Al-Qaeda led to the United States invasion in October of 2001 in response to the September 11 attacks. Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda until his 2011 death in Abbottabad, Pakistan, helped train mujahedeen soldiers in conjunction with the Pakistani Armed Forces (Dixon, N. 2001). Without U.S. support of the mujahedeen, the Taliban may never have risen to power. Whether the means justified this end, or whether the unintended consequences could have been foreseen, depends largely upon your political point of view.

The fall of the Soviet Union has not impeded anti-communist and anti-socialist sentiment in the United States. Programs that existed prior to and throughout the Cold War, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, are now labeled to be socialist in nature by their opponents. Rather than debating his policies on merit, Conservative pundits often fall back on calling President Barack Obama a socialist. Scrutiny of Obama’s relationships with controversial figures such as Rev. Jeremiah (Wright Banks, A. 2008) and Prof. Henry Louis Gates (McPhee, M. 2009) hearkens back to the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Smith, B. 2003). Those two government committees, often confused with one another, sought out Communist influence in government and relied on guilt by association to brand individuals as Communist sympathizers. Whether this is good or bad depends upon one’s political point of view.

While American technology and innovation haven’t fallen off completely, they have slowed without the impetus of the Cold War to drive them. The Space Shuttle has flown its last mission, with no replacement vehicle in sight. Innovation in electronics comes largely from Japan. Very little manufacturing is done within the United States, instead being sent by U.S.-based companies to plants in Mexico and China. Technical support is often outsourced to India.

The wars America is fighting today do not seem to inspire the same level of competition that the rivalry with the Soviet Union did. While it is good that Russia and most of the former Soviet states are now allies, America somehow seems less motivated without an ever-present enemy.

References

• Lippmann, W. (1947). The cold war: a study in U.S. foreign policy. Harper.
• Allitt, P. (2009) The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History. Yale University Press
• Burrows, W.E. (1998). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. New York: Random House. 147-149
• Kennedy, J.F. (1961). Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs.  Retrieved from  http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Special-Message-to-the-Congress-on-Urgent-National-Needs-May-25-1961.aspx2010-08-16.
• DeFronzo, J. (2007) Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements. University of Connecticut 207-208
• Garthoff, R.L. (1994). Détente and Confrontation. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institute 1017–1018.
• Prange, G.W., Goldstein, D., & Dillon, K.(2000) The Pearl Harbor Papers. Brassey’s 17
• Dixon, N. (2001) How the CIA created Osama bin Laden. Green Left Weekly. September 19,  2001. Retrieved from http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/24198
• Banks, A. (2008). Obama Finds Pulpit in Center of Racial Divide. March 22, 2008. Washington  Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102683.html
• McPhee, M. (2009). Obama Called Cop Who Arrested Gates, Still Sees ‘Overreaction’ in
• Gates’ Arrest. July 24, 2009. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8163051&page=1
• Smith, B. (2003). Naming Names. Hill and Wang. vii.