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Uploaded by CountChimpanzeeMaster745
Jaymi Davis
HIS 245
Professor Daniel
October 1, 2023
Milestone 2: Rough Draft
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 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.
8
Bibliography:
“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.
8
Malloryk. 2020. “Cold Conflict.”
The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
, July.
“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.
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