5 Things Americans were Afraid of during the Cold War Era

USSR and the Warsaw pact flag map Photo sourced from Wikimedia

5 Things Americans were Afraid of during the Cold War Era

The Cold war refers to period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies which are the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc respectively. It called the cold war because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers. It was called the Cold War because neither the Soviet Union nor the United States officially declared war on each other.

However, both sides clearly struggled to prevent the other from spreading its economic and political systems around the globe.This became the reason why the cold war lasted long because both nations feared each other so much. The Americans however feared the Russians so much because of certain reasons. Let’s take a look at some of the things that the Americans we’re afraid of during the cold war era; 

1.Communism

Museum of Communism Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Communism is an economic system where most property belongs to the government.Where as the United States believed in had a capitalist economy, where property usually belongs to individuals, the Russians and the Soviet Union on the other hand and its allies believed in communism. The USA felt threatened because of this of the influence of the Soviet Union on the world and more so the spread of communism on the US soil. 

With the spread of communism in Eastern Europe and China as well as the Korean War, The USA was also scared that communism could infiltrate it since the Soviet Union was know as very cunning people.  The USA and its allies were scared of anyone who may side with the communists and help the Soviets get secret information about the United States. The USA could later face a big task of trying to face out communism from its soil after it started spreading. 

Read more about communism in The Causes of the Cold War: Everything you need to Know

2.Nuclear Weapons

The Little Boy nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945 Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Another thing the USA feared during this time was the Soviet Union’s Nuclear weapons. The possibility of nuclear annihilation also loomed after observing the tests of both nations’ nuclear arsenals. As a result, a period of uncertainty and trepidation gripped millions of Americans to the extent that Schools began issuing dog tags to students so that their families could identify their bodies in the event of an attack. 

The Soviet Union’s continued production of nuclear weapons which we’re becoming superior than those of the United States Of America and its allies, brought fear to the Americans and they could only pray that the nuclear war doesn’t start between the two nations,It also led to an arms race between the two superpowers. Fears of nuclear warfare pervaded American society and culture in the 1950s and the Americans could not estimate the kind of influence the Russians we’re having on the world at large. 

Read more about the nuclear weapons and the arms race here

3.Military Size

Military parade. Rostov-on-Don, Soviet Union, USSR. Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Another thing that the Americans were fearful about is the size of of military personnel and arsenal of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had got to a point where they had thousands of military personnel  and some of the most up to date weapons which no other country had developed during that time. The types of weapons the Russians were making  so destructive, hence the fear of the Americans. 

The Americans feared if their military got into a physical confrontations with the soviet union, they could have been out numbered and lost the war because of the superior weapons USSR was making day in day out.The Soviet Union’s army was around 1 million personnel and had massive war machine that by 1980 comprised 50,000 tanks — or five times the American tank arsenal.This size in military gave the USA a tough time and though the USSR never attacked the USA felt it could happen soon. 

4.Fears that communist “sympathizers” and spies were infiltrating U.S. institutions

There was also the fear of communist “sympathizers” and spies were infiltrating US government institutions making the government. This fear could later turn violent with the 1919 anarchist bombings, a series of bombs targeting law enforcement and government officials.The government in return decided to take action, since the spread of communism was taking a different turn on the lives of its citizens. 

On March 21, 1947, President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) issued Executive Order 9835, also known as the Loyalty Order, which mandated that all federal employees be analyzed to determine whether they loyal to the government. Thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted. They were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs.

5.The USA feared the USSR’s style of forcing other nations to its rule

The USA fears the behavior of the USSR forcing other nations to submit to its rule. Its behavior in all its lands and its attempts and successes at bringing other states and other peoples under the same system fully justified apprehension that the USSR was trying to bring all the world into its prison house of nations and peoples. And the manifest capabilities of the USSR to succeed in conquests gave rise, and reasonably so, to a great deal of fear that it might just try to do so by force of arms.

So the free nations of Europe and the US who feared the USSR’s influence and affluence armed themselves to defend against the imposition of the USSR style on their countries. The USA were finally successful in overcoming the USSR’s influence though nut through a physical fight but through war of words.They US were able to succeed in facing out communism and the USSR’s influence on the world at large. 

The war finally came over and the USSR, Soviet union was disbanded when most of its members withdrew from the union while others became independent bringing an end to the long cold war that had lasted more than four decades. The cold war between the USA and USSR, Soviet Union lasted more than  40 years and the Soviet Union oversaw several changes during that time including being disbanded and becoming several nations.