Compare And Contrast The Cold War And The War On Terror

The Cold war and the War on Terror are two things that are being tied together as they are compared and contrasted for their similar and not so similar perspectives. While going through the sources I found, it became clear that some of the points of similarity and difference between two wars were the problems prior to both of these wars that increased and led to more tensions during the wars, how paranoia of the people living during this time, and how they both effect modern day America.

The start of both of these wars and the reason for the growing paranoia of the people were started by things that scared and threatened the population of the United States. One reason for the start of paranoia in the United States before the Cold war was the vast spread of communism throughout Europe and Asia after World War II.  Some of the countries that quickly fell under

communist rule in 1947 and 1948 include Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Communism was on the rise, which scared the people of the United States and the threat of nuclear bombs (that the United States was known to have after Hiroshima) started paranoia in European countries. The War on Terror which was infamously an effect of 9/11 and other following terror attacks. This great amount of loss from the attacks on 9/11 spread both sadness and paranoia throughout the United States as the country started to realize just how unpredictable the Middle Eastern extremist group really were. Although the events on 9/11 opened America’s eyes to the immense damage terrorism can cause, terrorism happened in some places in the Middle East and was normally done by radical extremist groups.

Both of these wars and many of the war decisions were and are swayed by paranoia of the United states military leaders, government, and public opinion. Before and in the opening years of the cold war, public opinion and general paranoia in the United States was growing about communism. Some who made a huge contribution to this growing hysteria was U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy accused people of being communist and did so with almost no evidence. He accused fellow government officials, some people of the working class, and even U.S. military leaders. People did not question many of his accusations because they were so blinded as to what he was doing by the paranoia of communism. Not only did McCarthyism add to paranoia, but so did the growing tension with the Soviet Union due to their relentless pushing to obtain more land and power, which did not lessen when the United States was aiding the weak countries in Europe after World War II. Today, the paranoia of terrorism in the United States has changed so many things, that the younger generations may not be able to realize. Since the terror attacks on 9/11 the United States has passed many laws and rules for airports and other big functions that can easily become uncontrollable if not under constant watch and security. The biggest contrast between how paranoia effected the life of the average American, is that during the Cold War, not as many steps were made to insure U.S. protection.

Both the Cold war and the War on terror play a big role in America today, especially the war on terror considering that this is a battle we are still fighting.

Many effects of the Cold war can be seen in almost every foreign policy decisions and I think that it grew the American attitude of wanting freedom and equality because it showed the people of the United States what a communist state would look like and most people feared that because it lacked the qualities and did not align with the attitudes that American is known to hold. (Some of the qualities of America are shown through the 18 amendments and one of the attitudes of American being that you can get to great places and do great things even if you started at the bottom if you work hard.) As the effects of the Cold War can be seen faintly in many aspects of America, the war on terror has changed the life of every American. The War on Terror is yet another war that effect most to all foreign policy decisions, but the war on terror has also forever changed national security on every level and public opinion on a whole religion; those who practice

Islam.

The Cold War and the war on terror both have so much in common and still so many opposing and conflicting points. The problems prior to both of these wars that increased and led to more tensions during the wars and left a small blue print for how the wars might develop into. Another point made was how both of these wars were driven by the mass hysteria and paranoia of the people. Both the Cold War and the War on Terror have had a big effect modern day America and still continue to influence U.S. government decisions and many of these decisions concerning foreign policy.