Cold War in the 1960s

Conceptions of the Cold War
The Cold War was the time period following the end of World War II, when the world was basically divided between Communism on the one hand and Capitalism on the other. The West favored Capitalism and the East favored Communism. The U.S. was the main power in the West and Soviet Russia was the main power in the East. The economic approaches of the two powers were only part of the story, however; this was also a war for hegemony. The U.S. wanted to influence the world order just as much as the Soviets did. Each tried to spread their influence—the U.S. throughout Europe via the Marshall Plan (Hogan & Hogan, 1989); the Soviets throughout Asia and Latin America through subsidization of Communist takeovers. The scare of Communism taking over in the U.S. was evident: McCarthyism was the result of this scare, but the assassination of JFK in 1963 and RFK in 1968 only added to the paranoia. The Vietnam War, supposedly fought to prevent the Soviets from extending their Communist influence throughout Asia, added to the tension at home and abroad. The arms race escalated the tension that Kennedy had sought to de-escalate through détente with Khrushchev (Stone & Kuznick, 2012). The Berlin Wall, the symbol of the divide between the East and the West, where both Kennedy and Reagan gave political speeches, came down in 1989, symbolically ending the Cold War. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 officially put the Cold War to rest—though today with a new arms race underway and tensions mounting between the U.S. and Russia it appears very much that a new Cold War is afoot.
The interviews that were conducted revealed that all three of the participants used the words “Russia” and “arms race” to define what the Cold War meant to them. One older participant said, “What comes to mind when I think of the Cold War is Communism.” A younger participant said, “Russia. Vietnam. Dr. Strangelove.” A middle-aged participant said, “The arms race, nuclear war—that’s what I think of.” All three intimated that war with the Soviet Union, the possibility or threat of military aggression, and the possible overthrow of one power by another were the main characteristics of the Cold War.
The participants all acknowledged being taught about the Cold War, except for the older person: he was not in school by then. The middle-aged person remembered being taught to fear nuclear war and to fear the Soviet invasion. The younger person was taught that the Cold War was about hegemony, and all of these answers are consistent with my view, as there were really many facets to the Cold War. They all acknowledged Russia and the U.S as the main actors in the Cold War and the main event was identified as the Cuban Missile Crisis (the Bay of Pigs by the younger person, and simply “Kennedy” by the middle-aged person). What their responses show is that there is a common view across generations of what the Cold War was all about, and that propaganda used during the Cold War also served to have an educative effect on the older participants, which explains why the older person focused more on Communism than the others. Still Communism was a problem for many Americans (though some favored it) and today it still remains one.
References
Hogan, M. J. & Hogan, M. (1989). The Marshall Plan: America, Britain and the
Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952. Cambridge University Press.
Stone, O. & Kuznick, P. (2012). The untold history of the United States. NY: Gallery.
Interview Notes
What words or phrases come to mind when you think of the term Cold War?
1 What comes to mind when I think of the Cold War is Communism.
2 Russia. Vietnam. Dr. Strangelove
3 The arms race, nuclear war—that’s what I think of
Did you ever study the Cold War in school? If so, what are some aspects of the Cold War that you remember?
1 Not in school.
2 nuclear war, Russia might invade
3 Power, it was all about power, politics, propaganda
Who were the parties involved in the Cold War?
1 Soviets, U.S.
2 Russia, the West
3 Russia, America
Can you name any key events that you mainly associate with the Cold War?
1 Cuban Missile Crisis
2 Kennedy
3 Bay of Pigs