Miracle On Ice Analysis

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Watching Miracle on Ice is a childhood memory I have a lot. The movie opens in Colorado. When watching I always felt the need to point this out. I always understood the underdog story, but it was only recently that I could clearly see the underlying themes of anti-communism. The Cold War and tensions with communist Russia were always prevalent after the end of the Second World War. Any peaceful meeting between the two countries was rare, and many conflicts were held as proxy wars. Americans and Russians backing two different governments who would fight. The Cold War wasn't cold the entire time, Hockey may have just been a sport, but the Americans victory over the Russians in 1980 at the lake placid olympics represented a turning point in the war, a war the Americans would go on to win. Although it had a big place in politics, this championship didn't change anything in terms of American hockey. After this victory the Americans in the subsequent years still had a poorly performing international team. The most interesting part of the 1980 Lake Placid games are the fact that they were such an outlier, and it caused a very resonant political response. Both the sudden success of American hockey, and the political impact it had was unprecedented. In the late 70's and early 80's …show more content…

The US was already planning on boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and tensions were already at an all time high. This is what made the game between the Soviets and the Americans. It not only seemed like an underdog victory for American hockey, but also "a victory in an ideological struggle", as someone who wasn't even alive during the Cold War this is a difficult thing to understand. The competition with the USSR in everything doesn't happen with other nations in the same way it did when the Iron Curtain was still draped between Eastern and Western

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