Cold War Memories: A Personal Perspective

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Q: “What main events do you remember from the Cold War?”
A:“I consider the Korean and Vietnam wars apart of the Cold War era. I remember the Vietnam War particularly well. We saw gory photos from Vietnam and Korea all the time in the newspapers during the Vietnam War especially. Many of the pictures were of American soldiers coming home in coffins which really made me angry. I remember doing bomb drills in school. There was a constant “edginess” because there was this threat of nuclear warfare. As I got older during the war, I was not too worried about it because I realised the Soviets didn’t want to be destroyed just as must as we did not. I thought if it was to happen it could be by a fatal error - either side making a mistake or overreacting.”

Q: Could you tell me more about the bomb drills you had in school? Were you frightened?
A: “Here 's what would happen. The teacher would suddenly yell “Drop!” randomly during class. We would duck and cover under our desks and stay there for a certain length of time; I don’t remember how long that was. Once the drill was over, the teacher would say all clear. I think this was in the early 50’s. I was somewhere around fifteen years old. It was definitely frightening to us because we were all well aware of what the threat was. Like I said, the pictures we often saw in the newspapers had put the ideas in our head. There was a time, during my early teens, where I thought I wouldn’t live past twenty because of the bomb. It didn’t get in the way of living a normal life, however. You wouldn 't wake up every day thinking you were going to die of the bomb that day. Although, the threat was always in the back of our heads. Even though this was during the 50’s; a very peaceful time domestically. Th...

... middle of paper ...

...ted to live peacefully and prosperously.”

Q: “What else do you remember about the Cuban Missile Crisis”
A: “Americans were becoming very concerned about the placements of missiles in Cuba that were in range to strike the US. I remember seeing photos of the Cuban missiles. This was a highly dangerous and provocative act by the Russians. I may have mentioned this to you before. I remember the actual night of the Crisis. I was with a friend at a bar in West Hollywood not knowing what the outcome of the Crisis would be, and whether or not we would be in a nuclear conflict shortly. The incident was happening in Cuba; far away from West Hollywood. We still felt that we were in great danger.”

I interviewed my grandpa seventy-seven-year-old grandpa. He currently lives in Marina Del Rey. During the Cold War era, however, he lived in various parts of Los Angeles and Malibu.

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