Michelle Goon
SS310 Exploring the 1960’s
Professor: Karen Lloyd
Unit 2 Assignment
Date: 2-12-2012
The Cold war started in 1945 and lasted until 1991 (Timeline of the Cold War, n.d.). During this time the world had many political views and agendas to deal with. There was the election between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960 and the election of Kennedy into office in 1961 (Farber, 1994) . There were mixed views on the types of government and the battle between countries to maintain governmental status. The country was also recovering for World War II at this time and was standing their ground against the Soviet Union, fighting for their values and beliefs with only words and standing tall to represent their country.
The cold war was a battle of threats and words with no physical fighting. The threats were about the nuclear weapons that were being housed in the Soviet Union after President Kennedy stated that we would not stand for these types of mass destruction weapons to be housed for the potential use against us and each countries standing up for its values, beliefs, and government (What was the Cold War, 00-12). The US and the Soviet Union were allies during WWII and as the shift in power and the rise of communism in the Middle East the tension between the two began to rise. Neither of the two countries wanted to take the first step towards a nuclear war so both sides just built wall to keep others out and as a method of showing their power and territory. As Kennedy states “We will no prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth – but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.”(Farber, 1994), this statement shows that we will not start the fight but we also as a nation will not be afraid to stand up to you if you do strike. Starting a battle would be a risk and divesting to our country but we will not back down. The specific
References: Farber, David, 1994, the age of great dreams (American in the 1960’s) pg.30 & 42 Timeline of the Cold War, n.d, retrieved from: http://library.thinkquest.org/10826/timeline.htm What was the Cold War, 2000-2012, Retrieved from: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm