Ty Gadberry
Ebert – DCUSH 1302 (Spring 2014)
Word Count: 4,000
Prompt: How have your films changed/aided the popular view of this era of American History?
Final: The Cold War (Finalth)
Often times, the vast entirety of the world populous enjoy movies for their entertainment or insight value, as well as the variety of topics of which they offer. The Cold War, a popular theme among many films, perpetuated from 1945, following World War II, until 1991. As the historical tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia, USSR, the two nations came to stand off, only to be interceded by the all too unfortunate and plausible concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. The era raises the question and sense of awareness for each country of the other’s strength, striking fear into those who lived to see it unfold. The American society, in an effort to raise public awareness of the threat that lay at its door step, turns to the entertainment industry for assistance in their dilemma. Between 1982 and 1991, during the rise of the burgeoning motion picture industry and the apex of the Cold War, several motion pictures make their debut where they depict Soviet Russia and its destructive and innovative potential. These films based within the time period, such as The Hunt for Red October, Red Dawn and War Games, are noteworthy examples of American propaganda during the later period of the Cold War and its distortion of what threats lie at the relative east in an effort to raise concern over the intercontinental standoff.
The Cold War subsisted as a forty year, or in light of alternate perspectives- perpetuating, conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Following the conclusion of World War II, the capitali...
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...ican propaganda during the later period of the Cold War and its distortion of what threats lie at the relative east in an effort to raise concern over the intercontinental standoff. Even with the Cold War’s perpetuation since 1945, the tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia are interceded only by the all too unfortunately plausible concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. During the height of the burgeoning motion picture industry and the apex of the cold war, the directors of such films intended on producing motion pictures that would depict Soviet Russia and its destructive and innovative potential. Thanks to this industry, the era would be successful in raising the American society’s sense of awareness toward the Soviet’s ingenuity; thus increase the support of the United States populous’ stance in the anti-Soviet movement.
The film, “Murrow vs. McCarthy” had introduced the development of news media and at the same time, in-depth telling the social political, economic and cultural changes in United States during the cold war. After World War II, the shadow of the war have not disappeared, the cold war atmosphere shrouded in the American’s minds. The United States was not only afraid of Soviet attack, but that dissidents will penetrate into the government to overthrow the current rule.
Both the superpowers have made use of the propaganda to fight the Cold War. Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause of point of view. Especially, the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics efficiently manipulated the prop...
The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism
Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Gregory, Ross. A. Cold War America: 1946 to 1990. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2003. McQuaid, Kim.
To what extent did anti-communism ideologies affect the daily in the US during the Cold War? The Cold War lasted from 1945 to 1953. This investigation assesses the daily life in the United States during this time frame. In order to evaluate the affect it had and its significance, the investigation evaluates the background of anti-Communism, the Red Scare and daily American life at home as well as in school. Influences of anti-communism ideologies through various types of propaganda will be discussed as well. Bishop Fulton J.Sheen’s articles of such events and television documentaries about the perspective on communism ideologies are the primary sources used to evaluate the affects. In addition, history sources dealing with propaganda in media and school life in the US will be used as well. This investigation will focus on the US daily life was affected nationwide.
The Cold War brought fear to Americans, with communism and the Red Scare. This essay will cover how the Films relate to the Cold War. Films such as; the Front, On the Waterfront, Guilty by Suspicion, High Noon and the Crucible. Along with, The Fifties text book by David Halberstam.
The beginning of the Cold War poses some controversy among historians, because tensions between the US and Russia date back into the 19th century. Most...
The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and Russia that began after the conclusion of World War II. Since the birth of the first communist country in the Russian Revolution, Americans were suspicious of the foreign Soviet nation. This tension continued into and after the Second World War despite the fact that both nations fought on the same side. During the war, there were disagreements and miscommunications during conferences that led to misinterpretations of accords. The United States established foreign policies in response to Soviet expansion. To first understand the origins of the Cold War, one must examine the Russian Revolution.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s two short stories, ‘All the Kings Horses’ and ‘Manned Missiles’, he tried to reflect on the actual international backdrops of the time the stories were based on, in two different ways. While both stories reflected on the events that took place during the Cold War, the author managed to portray the actors involved the United States and Russia, in different ways in order to show the historical implications the stories had, and how it could be related back to that time period. Even though the stories had certain similarities like the actors involved and the time period it was based on, it also differed in the way the actors were portrayed and how they impacted the Cold war.
Heller, Darryl “The Cold War” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 November. 2013. Lecture.
Tomkinson, John L. (2008) The Cold War: Themes in Twentieth Century World History for the International Baccalaureate. 3rd edition. Athens: Anagnosis.
The cold war can be seen as an event in which there are many conflicting ideologies about how it started. Some of the perspectives that will be analyzed in this essay are the views of the revisionists, post revisionists and traditionalists. For more than a decade, various historians have challenged the Cold War origins.
The end of World War II brought a combination of relief, joy and solemnity for the Americans in victory, however this atmosphere turned to anxiety quickly in 1945 as America’s wartime ally, the Soviet Union, suddenly became its enemy in the next forty-five years. This ongoing global conflict which arose from the fight between Capitalism and Communism, divided the formerly allied nations and sparked an intense battle for world supremacy. During the Cold War, the United States successfully promoted the value of democracy and inhibited Communist expansion. In this way, American’s action at home and abroad supported its democratic principles.
A common desire among those who study history is to determine who is to blame for the occurrence of significant events; but can it be done? Since the late 1940’s, historians have been engaged in a running debate over who caused one of the longest and most complex conflicts in US history, the Cold War. The tension between the communist Soviet Union and capitalist United States originated in 1917 with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, when the communists expressed their hatred of western capitalism and desire to “communize” the rest of the world (Gardner, 403). As World War II came to a close, feelings of mistrust and fear between the US and USSR were amplified due to a number of military and political actions on both sides. However, it is difficult to place blame on one nation or another, due to the inherent hostile nature between these two forms of government (Bailey, 750). While orthodox historian Thomas A. Bailey writes that Soviet aggression is to blame for the Cold War, revisionist historian Martin F. Herz argues that American diplomatic mistakes are to blame instead. Post Revisionist Steven Ambrose takes an alternative stance on the cause of the war and places partial blame on the US for being hypersensitive to Soviet expansion, but also claims that the Cold War was inevitable and, at its core, caused by Stalin. Ultimately, when one analyzes the varying viewpoints of the Cold War through these historical interpretations, it becomes apparent that it is impossible to blame solely the United States or the Soviet Union for causing the conflict, but rather the actions taken after WWII by both nations which led to an atmosphere of mistrust and tension.