January 22, 2013
The Cold War For this essay I decided to interview my three friends since we were all hanging out last week. Not sure it was the best group of people to interview since they are all around my age, but I work with what I’m given. Not knowing much about the Cold War myself, it was interesting to see some of the responses they gave me. Not knowing if they were correct or not, I had a fair share of research that had to be done.
To start off my interviews I had the pleasure of interviewing my good friend Dani Bobby. She was born in 1992 and didn’t have a single clue about what the Cold War was. The first question I asked her was if I could interview her about the Cold War. She said “All I know is that people shot other people”. This was about how knowledgeable I was. I figured that maybe it was a war that took place during the winter months and many troops suffered from the cold weather. I also interviewed my other two friends Cory Loving and JimTomas. Jim is the same age as Dani, but Cory is a little older being born in 1984. He was a little more knowledgeable then the other two, but still didn’t know that much about it. I asked him what he knew about the Cold War and his response is as follows, “I know it was after World War II and it was a war of words, not any gun fights.” This was the best answer I got from all three of my interviews. It pretty much summed up the Cold war in a simple sentence.
The Cold War was a war of words between the United States and communist nations. This was not like an ordinary war that involved warfare. There was no actually battle that took place, just threats between the nations. Of course these were real threats and no joke for many people living during this time. Schools practiced bomb drills and many civilians built personal bunkers at their homes. Many lived in fear for years waiting for the sirens to sound warning that the nation was under attack. Not until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin wall did the nation get to step back and take a breath. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live in a time like this. I would have been so scared I’m not sure I would have ever been able to sleep. Just imagine where we would be today if this hadn’t happened when it did. It is very interesting to think about.
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