Research Paper on "Cold War on the Homefront"

>

As the War in Europe came to an end, the nations in Eastern Europe which had been occupied by Soviet forces during the latter stages of the War established itself into an organization under the guidelines of a document known as the Warsaw Pact. In essence, these countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia were satellites of the Soviet Union and, although technically independent states, were subject to the whims and authority of the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin. Meanwhile the nations of Eastern Europe and the United States formed a similar organization known as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The merits of both organizations are subject to debate but suffice it so that both organizations feared the other both politically and militarily and that these organizations formed the line of demarcation relative to what would become the Cold War.

The America that entered the Second World War was not the same America when the veterans of the War began to return. Before the War the United States was displaying signs of becoming a world industrial power but with the industrial base of Europe and Japan destroyed by the effects of the War the United States emerged as the only Western industrial power. The only nation in the world capable of challenging the U.S. was the Soviet Union and this additional factor added to the tensions of the Cold War.

Prior to the Second World War the United States played only a secondary role in European and other World affairs but because the United States enjoyed a brief period of military dominance (6 years) when they, and they alone, possessed nuclear capability (Sherwin). This factor thrust the nation into a feeling of superiority and invulnerability but this was short-lived as the Soviet Union developed its own nuclear capability and the balance of power was quickly adjusted. A frenzy of fear developed in American society fueled by reports from the media and manifested by the McCarthy Congressional hearings and investigations. The fervidness of the McCarthy eventually dissipated somewhat but the fear of Communism remained strong in American society for several decades (Zeinert).

The rise of the Soviet Union and America's involvement in NATO caused the country to abandon its primary foreign policy based on isolation. Suddenly, the United States was placed in the position of being a policeman for democratic ideals and being the source of military… READ MORE