The Cold War Became A Dominant Influenc

The Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society for much of the second half of the 20th century. It escalated due to antagonist values between the United States, representing capitalism and democracy, and the Soviet Union, representing communism and authoritarianism. Being the two dominant world powers after WWII, contention between the Americans and Soviets became a global conflict. The Cold War differed from most wars in that it was as much of a propaganda war as a war with military engagements. The Korean and Vietnam Wars are important examples of military intervention by the Americans in the name of stopping communist expansionism. However, these wars did not have the decades long impact on American domestic and foreign policy that the cultural, political, and economic battles of the Cold War had.
Cultural battles between the superpowers had as much, or more, of an impact on the everyday lives of most American civilians than any other aspect of the Cold War. As a propaganda tool, “national security agencies encouraged Hollywood to produce anticommunist movies … and urged that film scripts be changed to remove references to less-than-praiseworthy aspects of American history” (Foner 851). This led to a litany of movies that helped spark patriotism, but also raised suspicion of communist activity in America. These anticommunist sentiments grew out of control and ended up working against Hollywood during the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings against suspected communists in Hollywood. While some communists were rooted out, many more lives were ruined based on weak evidence, unsubstantiated accusations, and peoples’ refusal to take part in the hearings or answer questions. Anticommunist fervor trickled down to have local impacts as well. For example, the “Better American League of southern California gathered the names of nearly 2 million alleged subversives in the region” (Foner 864). Many of these people were