The Cold War: At Home

Fear

• Fear swept through America– Fear that we’d be killed by nuclear attack– Fear that your neighbor was communist

• McCarthyism

• So how did Americans react to this fear?– “Duck and Cover” drills– Bomb shelters

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Duck and Cover Civil Service Film

“Red Scare”

• Americans were gripped by stories of convicted spies– Ethel and Julius Rosenberg– Alger Hiss

• Was your neighbor a spy?!?• Was your Representative in Congress a

spy?!?• HUAC = House Un-American Activities

Committee

McCarthyism

• Senator Joseph McCarthy

• McCarthyism = making of false accusations based on rumor or guilt by association

Domestic and Foreign Policy• The Cold War and

related issues were central to every single presidential election from the early 1950s to the late 1980s

• In Virginia, (and the rest of the country) heavy military expenditures benefited the economy– In VA, huge naval and

military bases built (Pentagon, Hampton Roads)

Over the course of the Cold War and all the “HOT” conflicts, millions of servicemen “defended freedom”, even when that was not the popular thing to do

Can you think of a conflict that was not popular at home?

Military Forces