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The Communist threat inside the country has been magnified and exalted far beyond its realities. It has bred fear and insecurity partly because of the horror of atomic war. “The concentration on military means has helped to breed fear. William Douglas, a Supreme Court Associate Justice at the time, made a keen observation of this trend: The paranoia, furthermore, was exacerbated by the fact that political figures, like Brewster and the notorious Joseph McCarthy, were suggesting we look not only overseas for our enemy, but also to our neighbors. 8 The more politicians talked about “traitors within our ranks,” the more frightened the public became of impending doom from the bomb. Senator Owen Brewster reveals him saying that the Russians obtained the atom bomb, “not through independent research, but from America, from traitors within our own ranks,” referring specifically to alleged Communists. In the film Atomic Café, released in 1982, archival footage of U.S. policy of “containment,” and the overall fear of Communist spillover in politically unstable regions of the world.Īfter the Soviet’s obtained the nuclear bomb, new fears regarding the advance of Communism became inextricably intertwined with the threat posed by the bomb itself. These sentiments were reflected in George Kennan’s Long Telegram, as he concludes, “the internal harmony of our society be disrupted, our traditional way of life be destroyed, the international authority of our state be broken, if Soviet power is to be secure.” 7 With this letter began the U.S. 6 Despite the fact that Democracy’s founding principals are fundamentally opposed to those of Communism’s, after fighting a war against Fascism, American’s viewed Communism as another radical ideology that would eventually pose a similar threat. and the Soviet Union without a common foe and without an enemy to unite the two countries, their drastic ideological differences quickly established each as the other’s ultimate enemy. The defeat of the Germans, although unarguably a success for both parties, had left the U.S. Judt claims, “it was in these post-war years, between 19, that the line dividing East from West, Left from Right, was carved deep into European cultural and intellectual life.” 5 The United States was clearly on one side of this divide, representing Western Democracy, with the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc planted squarely on the other side. It is in this same period that the political forces of Communism and Democracy collide head-on.

Tony Judt, author of Postwar, characterizes an arms race of unprecedented scale in the subsequent decade, writing, “the two Great Powers of the day were arming themselves to the hilt and preparing for the eventuality of a thermonuclear war.” 4 For Americans, the “paranoia” often associated with the Cold War began primarily on the day the Soviets announced their successful test. 3 This, at least, put a damper on the mood of post-war America. This significant military advantage lasted for only a few brief years, however, until the Soviet Union successfully tested their first atomic bomb in August 1949. In addition to the positive economic situation, the United States had become the most powerful country in the world more importantly, America was the first and only country with the atomic bomb. The middle class had swelled, unemployment rates were some of the lowest in history, and the “American Dream” was for many families a reality. 1 Life in America, consequently, was arguably better than it had ever been.

economy continued with great strength for more than a decade. In fact, the United States had enjoyed an extended period of economic expansion during the war, and following the war the U.S. Paranoia, nevertheless, was not an effect that followed immediately after the close of the War. This atmosphere is known broadly as the “Cold War.” While the Cold War played out step-by-step between the United States and the Soviet Union, it was simultaneously playing out in the everyday lives of the masses within their borders. As the energy of fundamentally different ideologies-Communism and Democracy-collided with advances in science such as the nuclear bomb, a dangerous environment ensued that created an atmosphere of paranoia throughout the world and especially, within America. This “postwar” period, as it became known, shaped the world as we know it today likewise, the period was shaped itself both by the war that had preceded it, and the powerful forces that surrounded it. The end of World War II was not just the end of a war, but also the beginning of a tense and dynamic period that affected society on all levels.