Essay About American People And Eisenhower Administration

In the Time Period Following World War Two – the Beginning of the Cold
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In the time period following World War Two – the beginning of
the Cold
War, the American people were afraid of three things, nuclear war,
spreading communism, and the communist investigators in America.
However, nuclear war, the threat of communism, and overly aggressive
communist investigation committees were only partially addressed by the
government, and American fears were more often than not increased by
the Eisenhower Administrations and the medias actions. The fear of
nuclear war
is a prime example of the Eisenhower Administrations partial success
to address the
fear, and its slight increase of the fear.
Nuclear war may be one of the worlds most prevalent fears,
today, but in the 1950s it was forever on Americans minds, as the
Soviets acquired nuclear weapons and the Cold War arms race began.
Americans became increasingly paranoid about a Soviet Nuclear strike on
American soil, and many people began to believe the only way to prevent
one was to make the first strike in the nuclear war (Document E). The
Eisenhower Administration addressed American fears of nuclear war
slightly, but did
nothing to help them. J.F.K., among others, addressed these fears in
widely publicized speeches saying that “the deadly atom” could be
unleashed to “engulf all humanity in planned of accidental
self-destuction” (Document I). Statements such as these prompted
Americans to support massively increased defense funding (Document H)
and an increase of the media and industry using the American fears to
their advantage. A prime example of this is Document C, which shows a
family in a fallout shelter. Inside the shelter is canned food, water,
and other survival materials. The profits of publishing materials such
as this went to the media and industries producing these materials. As
is apparent, the Eisenhower Administration addressed but did not quell
American fears,
and certain groups in America were able to take advantage of this fear.
Another great American fear in the 1950s was the threat of communism.
Communism, and the great communist power of the Soviet Union,
spreading across Asia and eastern Europe, striking fear in the hearts
of Americans as country after country fell to communism. As American
politicians such as George Kennan developed and strengthened the idea
of containment, and powerful cabinet members such as John Foster Dulles
spread the idea that “world communismwill increase the danger to
the entire free world”, Americans became more and more afraid of
communism. Americans began to believe their leaders when they said
that communism was “endangering the peace of America” (Document B)
and when they addressed the problem they had created by making