During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies
against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a
tense one. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned
about Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical, blood-thirsty rule of his own country.
For their part, the Soviets resented the Americans’ decades-long refusal to treat the
USSR as a legitimate part of the international community as well as their delayed
entry into World War II, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Russians.
After the war ended, these grievances ripened into an overwhelming sense of mutual
distrust and enmity. Postwar Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many
Americans’ fears of a Russian plan to control the world. Meanwhile, the USSR came
to resent what they perceived as American officials’ bellicose rhetoric, arms buildup
and interventionist approach to international relations. In such a hostile atmosphere,
no single party was entirely to blame for the Cold War; in fact, some historians
believe it was inevitable.
The Cold War: Containment
By the time World War II ended, most American officials agreed that the best
defense against the Soviet threat was a strategy called “containment.” In 1946, in his
famous “Long Telegram,” the diplomat George Kennan (1904-2005) explained this
policy: The Soviet Union, he wrote, was “a political force committed fanatically to the
belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus vivendi [agreement
between parties that disagree]”; as a result, America’s only choice was the “long-
term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.”
President Harry Truman (1884-1972) agreed. “It must be the policy of the United
States,” he declared before Congress in 1947, “to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation…by outside pressures.” This way of thinking would
shape American foreign policy for the next four decades.
Did You Know?
The term "cold war" first appeared in a 1945 essay by the English writer George
Orwell called "You and the Atomic Bomb."
The Cold War: The Atomic Age
The containment strategy also provided the rationale for an unprecedented arms
buildup in the United States. In 1950, a National Security Council Report known as
, NSC–68 had echoed Truman’s recommendation that the country use military force to
“contain” communist expansionism anywhere it seemed to be occurring. To that end,
the report called for a four-fold increase in defense spending.
In particular, American officials encouraged the development of atomic weapons like
the ones that had ended World War II. Thus began a deadly “arms race.” In 1949,
the Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own. In response, President Truman
announced that the United States would build an even more destructive atomic
weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or “superbomb.” Stalin followed suit.
As a result, the stakes of the Cold War were perilously high. The first H-bomb test, in
the Eniwetok atoll in the Marshall Islands, showed just how fearsome the nuclear
age could be. It created a 25-square-mile fireball that vaporized an island, blew a
huge hole in the ocean floor and had the power to destroy half of Manhattan.
Subsequent American and Soviet tests spewed poisonous radioactive waste into the
atmosphere.
The ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation had a great impact on American
domestic life as well. People built bomb shelters in their backyards. They practiced
attack drills in schools and other public places. The 1950s and 1960s saw an
epidemic of popular films that horrified moviegoers with depictions of nuclear
devastation and mutant creatures. In these and other ways, the Cold War was a
constant presence in Americans’ everyday lives.
The Cold War Extends to Space
Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition. On
October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik
(Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made
object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, and
not a pleasant one, to most Americans. In the United States, space was seen as the
next frontier, a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration, and it
was crucial not to lose too much ground to the Soviets. In addition, this
demonstration of the overwhelming power of the R-7 missile–seemingly capable of
delivering a nuclear warhead into U.S. air space–made gathering intelligence about
Soviet military activities particularly urgent.
In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army
under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, and what came to be
known as the Space Race was underway. That same year, President Dwight
Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration, as well as
several programs seeking to exploit the military potential of space. Still, the Soviets
were one step ahead, launching the first man into space in April 1961.
against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a
tense one. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned
about Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical, blood-thirsty rule of his own country.
For their part, the Soviets resented the Americans’ decades-long refusal to treat the
USSR as a legitimate part of the international community as well as their delayed
entry into World War II, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Russians.
After the war ended, these grievances ripened into an overwhelming sense of mutual
distrust and enmity. Postwar Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many
Americans’ fears of a Russian plan to control the world. Meanwhile, the USSR came
to resent what they perceived as American officials’ bellicose rhetoric, arms buildup
and interventionist approach to international relations. In such a hostile atmosphere,
no single party was entirely to blame for the Cold War; in fact, some historians
believe it was inevitable.
The Cold War: Containment
By the time World War II ended, most American officials agreed that the best
defense against the Soviet threat was a strategy called “containment.” In 1946, in his
famous “Long Telegram,” the diplomat George Kennan (1904-2005) explained this
policy: The Soviet Union, he wrote, was “a political force committed fanatically to the
belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus vivendi [agreement
between parties that disagree]”; as a result, America’s only choice was the “long-
term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.”
President Harry Truman (1884-1972) agreed. “It must be the policy of the United
States,” he declared before Congress in 1947, “to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation…by outside pressures.” This way of thinking would
shape American foreign policy for the next four decades.
Did You Know?
The term "cold war" first appeared in a 1945 essay by the English writer George
Orwell called "You and the Atomic Bomb."
The Cold War: The Atomic Age
The containment strategy also provided the rationale for an unprecedented arms
buildup in the United States. In 1950, a National Security Council Report known as
, NSC–68 had echoed Truman’s recommendation that the country use military force to
“contain” communist expansionism anywhere it seemed to be occurring. To that end,
the report called for a four-fold increase in defense spending.
In particular, American officials encouraged the development of atomic weapons like
the ones that had ended World War II. Thus began a deadly “arms race.” In 1949,
the Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own. In response, President Truman
announced that the United States would build an even more destructive atomic
weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or “superbomb.” Stalin followed suit.
As a result, the stakes of the Cold War were perilously high. The first H-bomb test, in
the Eniwetok atoll in the Marshall Islands, showed just how fearsome the nuclear
age could be. It created a 25-square-mile fireball that vaporized an island, blew a
huge hole in the ocean floor and had the power to destroy half of Manhattan.
Subsequent American and Soviet tests spewed poisonous radioactive waste into the
atmosphere.
The ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation had a great impact on American
domestic life as well. People built bomb shelters in their backyards. They practiced
attack drills in schools and other public places. The 1950s and 1960s saw an
epidemic of popular films that horrified moviegoers with depictions of nuclear
devastation and mutant creatures. In these and other ways, the Cold War was a
constant presence in Americans’ everyday lives.
The Cold War Extends to Space
Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition. On
October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik
(Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made
object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, and
not a pleasant one, to most Americans. In the United States, space was seen as the
next frontier, a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration, and it
was crucial not to lose too much ground to the Soviets. In addition, this
demonstration of the overwhelming power of the R-7 missile–seemingly capable of
delivering a nuclear warhead into U.S. air space–made gathering intelligence about
Soviet military activities particularly urgent.
In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army
under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, and what came to be
known as the Space Race was underway. That same year, President Dwight
Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration, as well as
several programs seeking to exploit the military potential of space. Still, the Soviets
were one step ahead, launching the first man into space in April 1961.
