Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a popular public figure in the world events in the mid -20th century. He was a democratic and served as the American president for two terms during a period of worldwide total war and economic depression. The cold war influenced the American society on the second half of the 20th century on many aspects. Cold war arose as a result of differences between Soviet Union who supported authoritarianism and communism, and United States who advocated for democracy and capitalism. After the winning of United States in the cold war, the war ended leading to collapse of the Soviet Union and the United States becoming the superpower.
The cold war had both negative and positive impacts on the American society. It affected the Americans domestic policy both economically and socially. Cold war led to many changes inform of social reforms in the fields of labor unions, working conditions and labor unions. Economically, high growth was experienced as many industries, which were war related came up. There was a lot of tension which was brought about by the conflict between United States and the soviets. The reason behind the tension was due to the fact that United States had placed missiles in turkey causing the tension to the soviets as they feared that the missiles were destined to harm them. Also, the past experiences of the world wars and the severe damages kept growing thus causing the fear between the both parties. This fear influenced the America’s national scene in that it started building large military and multiple nuclear weapons as a way of scaring the Soviet Union. America also started forming alliances and looking for supporters among the members who were neutral between their conflicts with the Soviet Union. America had to use a large percentage of its budget in the form of financing in supporting their friends in the form of money and supplies.
Since America and soviet union were the superpowers after the world war II and due to tension of who would be more superior America had to do a lot of campaigns so as to influence the events occurring all over the world so as to prove to the soviet union that they were more superior. America also signed treaties and joined alliances with nations which were near Soviet Union as away of protecting themselves from, soviet invasion. America signed the Truman Doctrine with other countries in 1947 as a way of preventing the spread of communism to countries such as Middle East, Africa, south Asia and Africa. Truman Document was formed by President Truman together with his administration.
This great fear in America of nuclear war or spreading of communism brought about benefits and losses to the American culture. This fear change the American in many spheres as it affected both the cultural and the social life of the Americans. Many movies were produced in Hollywood over the issue, and a conflict arose whereby the movie industry was criticized of supporting communism in their movies. This led to punishment of the controversial figures in this industry. Some even had to lose their jobs, and their ways of lives changed where even had to serve for jail terms. AS a result of coming up of this great fear, new industries came up for manufacturing weapons and which were war related thus many people were employed in these industries thus creating employment which was beneficial to the American citizens. More new weapons were invented at this time. AS a result of this fear America made friends with other countries as a way of gaining support thus changing the culture of America. Due to these political relationships they were able to interact and borrow culture from each other thus American culture changed as a result. The constitution had to be changed from time to time to allow many alliances formed, and treaties signed during this period which changed the American culture.
Works Cited
Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War. London: Allen Lane, 2006. Print.
Jenkins, Roy, and Richard E. Neustadt. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New York: Times Books, 2003. Print.
