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Jaymi Davis HIS 245 Professor Daniel October 15, 2023 The Cold War: An Uncertain Time for America

In the years following WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union had been transformed into two of the largest world powers ever seen. This sense of power from both parties developed into a political rivalry that we know today as the Cold War. “The subsequent race for superior military power sparked an era of espionage, wars over the spread of communism, and a build-up of nuclear arms that threatened global annihilation.” 1 President Roosevelt had hopes of keeping things between countries peaceful, but that became complicated as communism was so widespread in the USSR, and Russia was subsequently under communist control. As the USSR began to claim different territories throughout Europe it was clear that they had planned to spread communism across the continent and needed to be stopped. The nuclear arms race that was prevalent during the Cold War was responsible for the development of new hydrogen bombs, posed new ways in which America dealt with foreign affairs, and instilled fear in the hearts of Americans for years to come. In 1947, now with President Harry Truman’s administration in office, he focused largely on the containment of communism. President Truman was adamant that if one country fell to communism, the surrounding countries would as well due to something called the “domino effect.” 2 Truman realized that there was a call to action, and he felt obligated to provide aid to countries that were threatened by the USSR’s intentions to spread their communist ideals. He delivered a speech to Congress, which later became known as the Truman Doctrine, in which the President promised the aforementioned support to European countries in danger of being overthrown by the USSR. Truman stated, “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” 3 President Truman’s promise became one that was carried on throughout his 1 Malloryk. 2020. “Cold Conflict.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans , July. 2 Ibid 3 “Truman Doctrine (1947).” 2022. National Archives. February 8, 2022.

presidency as well as other administrations that came after his and subsequently would be the reason America entered into wars with both Korea and Vietnam. With the rivalry continuing, both governments felt the need to begin spying on each other in an attempt to undermine one another. Spies would be planted within both governments to “subvert policy, spy on intelligence, and seek out ways to hinder any effort at growing global power.” 4 This created a sense of paranoia within governments as many of the scenarios we typically pair with espionage, did indeed happen. Early spies utilized their wits to obtain knowledge that would be useful to their government in throttling their rivals’ plans. This would evolve to later spies developing gadgets, which would assist them on missions and hopefully provide a better outcome. Introducing spies into warfare became one of the ways a country sought to level the playing field and by doing so it had altered the course of history setting the USSR and US on a path of competition. Prior to the Cold War, the United States had proven to the world, that they were capable of building some of the most powerful and deadliest bombs, with the detonation at Hiroshima. This left other countries believing that they needed to build bigger and better nuclear weapons, and that sense of rivalry sparked the USSR to begin building their own nuclear weaponry. This prompted the USSR to send spies to work within the United Stated nuclear programs such as the Manhattan Project. Klaus Fuchs, became a leading physicist working on the Manhattan Project, but what many didn’t know is that Fuchs was a communist spy. He agreed to work in the US and pass critical information from these nuclear projects to the USSR during and in the following years after WWII. Fuchs’ infiltration of the Manhattan Project provided the USSR with critical information they needed to develop their version of a hydrogen bomb. Some experts believe that with his help the USSR was able to develop their bomb years faster than they would have been able to without the help of espionage. 4 Malloryk. 2020. “Cold Conflict.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans , July.

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Once the USSR had developed their hydrogen bomb there was only one thing left to do, and that was to test the bomb. On August 29, 1949, only months after receiving the intel from spies, the USSR tested their first hydrogen bomb which they named “First Lightning.” 5 This would be the catalyst that many see as the official beginning of the Cold War and the event that forced the US’ had towards protecting themselves as well as other countries from nuclear warfare. The President addressed the people of America, informing them about the bomb testing and stated “This recent development emphasizes once again, if indeed such emphasis were needed, the necessity for that truly effective enforceable international control of atomic energy which this Government and the large majority of the members of the United Nations support.” 6 President Truman wanted to focus his efforts at containment and control of the nuclear supply of weapons. He wanted to obtain this control peacefully because he understood the devastating consequences a nuclear war would have on the world. While Truman worked with his administration to contain communism and limit the production of nuclear weapons by the USSR, the people of America lived in fear. The United States government took steps towards creating instructions for its citizens on how to build their own bomb shelters within basements and backyards. “Nuclear bomb drills became a routine part of disaster preparedness.” 7 Disaster preparedness became intertwined with every aspect of life, including the daily lives of school children. Many schools issued a form of dog tags to their students in the event that something happened, bodies could still be identified. Additionally, in 1952 the Civil Defense created a film called “ Duck and Cover” which showed students how to hide under desks and other places that would help shelter them from injury. The reality of this 5 “Soviet Atomic Program - 1946 - Nuclear Museum.” n.d. Nuclear Museum. 6 “Statement by President Truman in Response to First Soviet Nuclear Test | Wilson Center Digital Archive.” n.d. 7 “We Like Ike,” OpenStax College, US History. OpenStax CNX. Accessed October 1, 2023.

situation is that while it was great to have a plan, these duck-and-cover methods would do nothing in the event of an actual atomic bombing, and that incited even more fear in Americans. In addition to an arms race, the Cold War involved the “space race” between the US and the USSR that began on August 2, 1955. It consisted of a series of space-related travels in which the USSR and the US were both trying to be the first to land on the moon. For twenty years both countries went back and forth accomplishing a series of launches and landings into space with American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first to ever walk on the moon successfully. By 1975, the tensions between the two countries had begun to simmer down and the two countries sent astronauts separately into space in what became known as the Apollo- Soyuz mission. When both parties docked and entered the space station, they symbolically shook hands, which became seen as the end of the space race and subsequently led to future joint missions between the US and the USSR. The United States prided itself on freedom and equality, however, the USSR attempted to sway people into believing the US was hypocritical because of all the issues surrounding civil rights that were taking place at the time. The Soviet Union had hoped that portraying America in a negative light would gain them new allies, so they began spreading the idea that the US was a toxic, racist, and disingenuous country. Additionally, the war in Vietnam was a considerable loss for the United States as they failed to defeat communism, this became one of the blows to Americans that reduced the confidence they had in the government. Vietnam became one of the first wars in which war footage had been televised, making citizens of the US aware of the overwhelming American casualties of war. This led many Americans to feel slighted and almost as if they had been conned into supporting the war efforts of an unsuccessful war. This was a

turning point for the people of the United States that caused a sense of awakening of the public to foreign and domestic issues, that they had previously entrusted the government to handle. As the Cold War continued on through the 1980s, it saw the election of President Ronald Reagan, who was one of the more military active presidents. He ushered in an era of neoconservatism that focused largely on “traditional values”, law and order, and patriotism, with the desire to return America to a more peaceful environment by altering the social norms. Reagan understood that he needed to take a bold approach at dealing with the Soviet Union, thus he cut spending to certain social programs set up by previous President Lyndon Johnson, allocating that money toward military spending. Reagan also began his efforts towards ending the Cold War for good when he began Strategic Arms Limitations Talks(SALT) with the Soviet Union, which would result in two different arms agreements between the superpowers. In the initial proposal, President Reagan asked for a fifty percent reduction to the Soviet Union's arsenal, despite dears that it would be rejected by the Soviets. His reasoning behind asking for such a high reduction percentage hinged on the fact that the Soviets would reject it, allowing the president to then blame the continuing arms race on them which would give justification for continuing to fund and build certain weapons. 8 By 1985, the two countries had continued negotiations but were still unable to come to an agreement because the Soviets refused the new proposal asking that America halt its research into missile defense systems because it was considered illegal under the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Reagan would not get to see his beginnings come to an end while in office, but by the early 1990s President George H.W. Bush continued and finished what Reagan had started with his administration. The START agreement was officially signed in 1991 when President George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev came together in Moscow to negotiate on nuclear weaponry stockpiles 8 “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, 1991 and 1993.” n.d. U.S. Department of State Archive.

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once again. The first phase of START “required the two countries to reduce their total number of nuclear warheads and bombs by one-third.” 9 This treaty was generated to ensure the safety of the world by reducing the number of nuclear arms each country was allowed to have in its reserves. By 1993, a second phase of the START treaty was generated between President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. This second phase of START was signed in 1993 and came after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They kept their weapons spread between three different republics of Russia making it difficult to ensure they were keeping to the policy and destroying an accurate one-third of their stock. START II was merely to ensure that Russia was abiding by the treaty, and one by one their republics ratified START and began to destroy weapons. This would be what we come to know today as the action that signified the official end of the Cold War. The Cold War brought many uncertainties for the people of the world, as it had threats of nuclear warfare, attempts to contain the spread of communism, and the race to space. It changed the way Americans viewed war and showed them that war does not always come with on-land fighting. The Cold War was responsible for altering the stance that the president took when dealing with foreign affairs and proved that even the greatest country in the world was still vulnerable to spies. While it was a scary time for the world, the show of military strength, the advances in weaponry and technology, as well as the overall structure of global politics that we still utilize today can all be attributed to the Cold War. 10 Bibliography: 9 “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, 1991 and 1993.” n.d. U.S. Department of State Archive. 10 Malloryk. 2020. “Cold Conflict.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans , July.

“Statement by President Truman in Response to First Soviet Nuclear Test | Wilson Center Digital Archive.” n.d. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/statement-president- truman-response-first-soviet-nuclear-test. “Truman Doctrine (1947).” 2022. National Archives. February 8, 2022. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/truman-doctrine. Corbett, P. Scott. “28.3 The American Dream - U.S. History | OpenStax,” December 30, 2014. https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/28-3-the-american-dream. Malloryk. 2020. “Cold Conflict.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans , July. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/cold-conflict. “Soviet Atomic Program - 1946 - Nuclear Museum.” n.d. Nuclear Museum. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/soviet-atomic-program-1946/#:~:text=It %20would%20only%20be%20a,Semipalatinsk%20on%20August%2029%2C%201949. “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, 1991 and 1993.” n.d. U.S. Department of State Archive. https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/104210.htm.

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