Loren Deerwester

Finals Essay

HIS 122-03

During the many years that the cold war had raged (1945 -1991) it affected America in
many ways, both the government itself and the people in the nation itself. While out foreign
policy was indeed greatly affected, but so did the domestic policy as well causing us just as much
problems as we tried to cause the Soviet Union. Its effects even had lingering affects years later
even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had been allies against the
forces of Nazi Germany. However, after the war had ended the politic differences caused tension
between America and Russia. When World War II had ended the allied powers (United States,
Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) met in the bombed-out suburb of Berlin to hold the Potsdam
Conference, where Stalin regained and even expanded the Soviet Unions territory. In 1946,
America and Britain merged their zones in Germany they gained as part of the Potsdam
Conference and they even invited France and the Soviet Union to do the same. Stalin refused to
let all the zones merge back into a single Germany, especially after Russia had been attack twice
before by a united Germany. The United State feared the Soviet Union was going to try to
expand communism into Eastern Europe and it is because of this fear that the United States
adopted the policy of containment. The main purpose of the containment policy was to insure
that communism wouldnt spread to other countries.
During this time the entire nation was in a deep fear of possible communists inside the
United States and this Red Scare led to many events happening thanks to paranoia. A list of
hundreds of potentially subversive organizations was published and as a result many political and
social organizations were out lawed. A major target of this list of organizations and social
institutions that serviced Eastern European immigrants were the hardest hit by the Attorney
Generals List. It was during this time that the CSI or Central Intelligence Agency was made and

Loren Deerwester

Finals Essay

HIS 122-03

its Function was to collect information for Security Purposes throughout the world rather than
domestically which was the job of the FBI.
In 1950, South Korea had been invaded by its communist northern half and President
Truman sought to use the UN Security Councils approval to send in troops. The original country
of Korea was split in two after World War II. The South half being democratic, while the north
half being communist and they were divided by a line called the 38th parallel which they are still
divided by to this day. When Truman did send troops they were able to push the North Korean
forces back passed the 38th parallel, however Truman decided to try to unite all of Korea
democratically despite warnings from China that if they cross the line to attack North Korea they
will be threating Chinas national security. So when we did and got to the Yalu River, Chinese
forces attacked, managing to push the UN forces back to South Korea where fighting pretty
much stabilized at the 38th parallel. The whole entire act of Truman deploying troops into Korea
by instituting a peace time draft without a declaration of war is very important in itself. This is
because in order to deploy troops a president is supposed to get congressional authority, who will
then make a declaration of war, this ends up becoming a reoccurring event in later years.
By 1970, the number of Americans who had higher education increased and they had
been drastic improvements in medical care. During this over 7.5 million students where enrolled
in colleges and universities which also led to universities becoming more business-like. While
the antibiotic Penicillin that was used during World War II became available to the general public
in addition to the creation of the polio vaccine. Though both poor and elderly were unable to
afford medicine, it was later on that President Eisenhower proposed national health insurance
and was later on the advent of both Medicare and Medicaid.

Loren Deerwester

Finals Essay

HIS 122-03

During Kennedys years of presidency he had been sending Green Berets and military
adviser to help the South Vietnam government lead by Diem who was a horrible dictator in
response to the movement of communist Vietcong guerrillas who were fighting back against
Diems regime. Kennedy also ordered them to engage in sabotage and intelligence gathering
against Ho Chi Minh who was the leader in North Vietnam. By the time this was happening a
large number South Vietnamese had also joined the revolt against Diem. In 1963, with approval
of the United State a group of Vietnamese generals killed Diem and his advisers.
President Kennedy had been president for three years, being forty-six years old when he
was assassinated. The person who was accused of killing President Kennedy was a man named
Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy was killed at a distance. However, before anything could be
determined Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed on television by a shadowy figure.
While during his presidency Kennedy did send support South Vietnam, it didnt actually
become the Vietnam War until 1964. Under the presidency of Lyndon Johnson the United States
bombed North Vietnam in response to a suicide bomb squad. Operation Rolling Thunder was an
ever intensifying air attack against North Vietnam which was less than affective, once these air
raids began President Johnson became hesitant to speak openly with the American public with
his plan. President Johnson had decided to send in more ground because he believed that the
public wouldnt go with his plan, he slowly brought more troops over. First it was only two
battalion of marine, then several weeks later 50,000 United States troops, and come near the end
of the year over 165,000. President Johnson had the very wrong idea to handle North Vietnam,
he thought that using heavy artillery and air power would exhaust the Vietcongs resources which
in fact had very little effect on them. Though it did do much damage to the forests in those areas,
but Vietcong were able to take supplies off the bodies of dead United States soldiers.

Loren Deerwester

Finals Essay

HIS 122-03

A few weeks after Operation Rolling Thunder was announced nationwide students started
a day long boycott and they protested against war-related research being conducted on campuses.
When such students got no response from administrators for their university would at out in civil
disobedience in response. Two years later, the movements had gone beyond school campuses as
large daylong rallies were held in Manhattans Central park and even San Francisco got in on it.
A number of demonstrators thought to try a different tactic and burned their draft cards or
refused to be inducted into the draft. Another radical number of activists caused around 40,000
bombing incidents and/or bomb threats, a very intense action to be done indeed.
The Vietnam War ended in 1973 with the Paris Peace Agreement which led to all the
United States troops leaving Vietnam, two years later South Vietnam itself will fall to the north
and become the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, the results of the Vietnam War left a
taste in Americans mouths that would make them reluctant to enter into any more conflicts. In
1974 the Watergate incident put a very negative light no President Nixon and the several
presidents before him. He was afraid of what the Pentagon Papers might have on him and had
order a team to obtain the papers, but were caught in the attack then ended up being Nixons
reasons for resigning from office.
The Soviet Union didnt last forever and neither did the cold war, in 1991 the Soviet
Union was official dissolved partly because of Ukraine wanting nothing to do with Russia and
also because of horrible economic times the entirety of the Soviet Union was going through. It
was also during this year that when Saddam Hussein had Iraq attack Kuwait for oil, that the
United States initiated Operation Desert Storm to expel Iraq solider from Kuwait and was the
most decisive and quick victory we had since our lost at Vietnam, though we pushed back
Saddams forces we didnt deal with him which would come back to bite us in the ass in 2001.

Loren Deerwester

Finals Essay

HIS 122-03

A lot of social programs that exist today have a starting during the cold war and while it
is still fairly fresh in the minds of most Americans it is hopefully isnt going to be something
anyone will have to deal with again anytime soon. Hopefully. With luck.

Resources
Out of Many. Faragher, John; Buhle, Mari; Czitrom, Daniel; and Armitage, Susan. Peasons 2016,
2012, 2009.