This reading does little to evaluate each individual presidents' policies during the Cold War, but rather evaluates the ways in which the United States changes due to its longstanding anti-communist rhetoric. It is important to acknowledge that while the US continued its military expansions to respond to the threat of the Soviet Union, it never faced its enemy head on. Meanwhile the United States entered into a period of economic prosperity that remained largely unchecked until the 1970s.
So what is our takeaway from how the Cold War affected the Americas? How did it change the image of the United States for developing countries in particular? Was the Cold War necessary for the United States to become the country it is today?
The cold wars effects are sort of interesting because they were different depending on whether they were in the states or out. within the states, a sort of fear and paranoia of Communism still remains and continues to be an accusation thrown around by competitive politicians. out side the US, while not many communists regimes lasted in the end, American's fight against communism is sort of what gave the US its reputation for world police and as that country that likes to take control over situations there are not relevant to their own when they disagree with the politics. Over all, of course America's history adds up to what the country is today. may alliances were made as were economic advances, though I wouldn't call the cold war "necessary" I think it simply had an impact.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the cold was was very necessary into making the US what is it today. the Cold war made everyone within the states paranoid about communists and made sure that our government wasn't influenced by any train of thought from that political ideology. Out side of the States, the world seemed to think that we would get involved in matters we had no reason to be involved with. An example is going into Guatemala or even Cuba. We had no right to go into either country let alone try and influence who the leaders were and what they intended to do. I understand that the need to preemptively "strike" against possible threats to keep the nation safe but there is a point where you need to step back and ask what are we doing? Inside the States the US kept strong and prevailed without any major changes to government or to american life, outside the states, the US is seen as a overreaching superpower that is trying to control too many variables.
ReplyDeleteCommunism was a big threat to the Americas. People feared that Communism was taking over and they were potential victims of it. It states, "The era had been marked by less the antagonism between the Western and Communist worlds than by the creation of dozens of new nations, compromising more than a billion people". Technology advancements played a role in America's power. The text mentioned the US having a status quo when necessary. I think the Cold War definitely had a huge impact on America and its power.
ReplyDeleteI think that after everything we have read and learned about the Cold War and just communism in general, there was an evident threat for America. Everybody was afraid as they should have been. At the times, people were hearing a lot of misconceptions about what they were doing and they wanted no part of it. We developed a strong set of policies to keep it as far away as possible, or quartentine it from coming close to our nation. I think that the Cold War has shaped the us to be what it is today. The fight against communists, gave us this sort of figure like we mean Buisness. We won't let something come near us if we don't want to. I think that it gave us a sort of mindset vital for the progression of our constantly developing country.
ReplyDeleteThe Cold War helped to shape the US into a country of intimidation, in my opinion at least. The US has always been involved in major conflicts due to their powerful military, and I feel that the Cold War has further heightened that because of the sheer power they have in nukes alone. However, I feel that it was negatively received by the public because they did not like the risk of having their own country nuked. A lot of people also oppose nuclear warfare in all forms, and the Cold War caused that.
ReplyDeleteparanoia dominated the decades of the cold war. As well as a large complement of fear. As we've seen from are various discussions and readings a lot that fear was justified. A perfect example would be the Cuban Missile crisis. The communists (namely Russia and Cuba) could have potentially launched a nuclear strike that could hit the US in less than 2 hours, or worse yet: reach the US capitol. But for every justified fear there were perhaps even more misconceptions and general paranoia. However the cold war left a less-than-desired impression of the US on the world at large. Yes, the cold war did changed and shape the country to what it is today, with all the alliances and bad blood it brought along with it.
ReplyDeleteI am particularly interested in how Thomas Powers's quote in the Jan 1984 issue of The Atlantic Monthly relates to the overall Cold War influence on the US. He says that the US/USSR rivalry was "in a tightening spiral of hear and hostility. We don't know why we have got into this situation, we don't know how to get out of it, and we have not found the humility to admit we don't. In desperation, we simply try to manage our enmity from day to day." This suggests the fact that the Cold War has allowed the US to lose sight of what a normal life is. With a constant anti-communist mentality, the US has changed into a country that solely acts to respond to these types of crises. And like Powers stated, this let the US turn into a system that acts on a "day to day" basis where emergency situations and pesky details are overpowering their ability to see/fulfill their more important long term needs/goals.
ReplyDeleteThe Cold War helped shape America in the cultural sense more than anything else. With that being said, the Cold War had a greater impact on AmericaNs than it had on America. As many have said earlier, this war helped secure the anti-Communism sentiment among Americans. It also showed other countries that the US was a power that has "no fear," or one that is willing to play mind games by waving their nuclear weapons around.
ReplyDeleteFor the USA, the Cold War was obviously essential in the definition of their identity. Not only in warfare, but more importantly it established a sense of ideology that is how the world sees them today. In one way it reinforced the ideals that America had had since their independence and boosted it up another level by adding anti-communist sentiments. And it also defined the place that the USA has in the world today as being involved in a lot of global matters, whether this may be good or not. I'm not sure what to think about the other American countries. I think the Cold War definitely did stress alliances between them, but also brought them more together.
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