Was there a constant 'fear of the bomb' in the Soviet Union and America during the Cold War?
Upvote:2
I became aware of the Cold War and the risks of a nuclear war in the late seventies. Most people in the UK didn't worry about it often, but it was always there. I particularly remember the night of the KAL007 shoot-down, September 1st, 1983.
I got home late, turned on the radio to BBC World Service and heard the news. I stayed up for a while to see if the situation would escalate, but when that didn't seem to be happening, I went to bed, not sure if there would be a morning.
Upvote:4
As an American born in the 1950s, I remember a "fear of the bomb" in the early stages of the Cold War. In addition to "fire drills" we (as schoolchildren) had "bomb drills" of hiding in a "bas*m*nt," or absent such, under our desks.
This was perhaps less so immediately after World War II (1945-1950), and escalated during the 1950s after the McCarthy "anti Communism" hearings, and particularly after Sputnik in 1957, when the Soviet Union briefly moved head of the U.S. in space exploration. The level of concern seemed to peak in the early 1960s, after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world moved closer to a nuclear exchange than ever before or since.
The purpose of the Nixon-Brezhnev detente of the 1970s was to diffuse this tension, but in the 1980s, President Reagan reversed this policy with "Strategic Defense Initiative "star wars," to try to "outbuild" the Soviet nuclear program into the ground. It was so successful that it brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union itself, not just its nuclear program.
Upvote:10
In the USSR there was none among the common people, maybe except the Cuban crisis period, I don't know. There was totally no fear of war, let alone, a nuclear one. The state propaganda emphasized peace and and international friendship.
Regarding the Cuban crisis some people I had talked to said that they realized how dangerous it was only years after, and that they had no fear of war at the time.
It seems in the West on the other hand the fear propaganda was put in full and they could really strike us under this psychosis.
Next follows my opinion. Peace was a part of the social contract in the USSR. The Communist government failed to provide high standards of living but at least they provided peace and were basing their legitimacy on that. There were many WWII veterans who knew how bad the war was so the TV constantly stressed that wars were over now thanks to our party and government who guard our peaceful skies and constantly struggles for peace in the world.
More post
- 📝 Are there any universally accepted or non-Abrahamic based books in history that have mentions of longevity of prophets?
- 📝 How were dogs used in WW1
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 What was the outcome of the first tank battle?
- 📝 Hitler's Dental Records
- 📝 Why did early attempts to transport milk to London by rail meet with 'much criticism'?
- 📝 Is Himmler's memo about genocide authentic? Significant?
- 📝 Could some of the Titanic passengers have climbed on the iceberg to survive?
- 📝 Libya: Did Gaddafi forbid locks in private homes and order people to swap jobs?
- 📝 What does "Central Europe AG 2006" mean in discharge papers?
- 📝 State of temporary recklessness of ancient Greeks
- 📝 Treatment of Jewish WWI Veterans
- 📝 Are there any examples of civilians competing with, or hindering, a military?
- 📝 How would I establish a value for these watches?
- 📝 Is Samuel Igra's "Germany's National Vice" reliable in any way?
- 📝 Why didn't the Ottoman Empire remain neutral in WW1?
- 📝 How did New York become the financial hub of America?
- 📝 What was the first confirmed use of black powder to blow stuff up in war (in China and in Europe)?
- 📝 Which king was this?
- 📝 Where can I find a specific hieroglyphs website?
- 📝 How was the U.S. divided regarding the French Revolution around 1789?
- 📝 What does the abbreviation "adhib." mean in historiography or archival science?
- 📝 Has there ever been an attempted military takeover of a democracy in the western world?
- 📝 What is the silver object on the desk and what is 'Elizabeth I' doing with it?
- 📝 Did the chariot drop in importance between bronze age Greece and the iron age Greece? Why, why not?
- 📝 What type of people were most likely to be suspected of witchcraft in Salem?
- 📝 Was the concept of religious freedom in the early United States applied to native American faiths?
- 📝 Was the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII a public affair?
- 📝 What was Justice Louis Brandeis's opinion on eugenics?
- 📝 What was the first major historical event to be photographed?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was there a constant 'fear of the bomb' in the Soviet Union and America during the Cold War?
- 📝 Was the Soviet Union in 1945 seeking to capture German soldiers and civilians, or drive them west?
- 📝 Was there anything in common between the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia?
- 📝 Was there a military practice of reloading while marching/running, in Europe or America during the 18th and 19th centuries?
- 📝 Was there an embargo of Soviet gold in 1932, and was grain the primary exportable good?
- 📝 What was the basis for the Nazis to support various ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and elsewhere over the majority populations?
- 📝 What incentives were there for Soviet and Chinese politicians to try climb to the top when there was so much history of deposing their own?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Did the U.S. and Soviet Union have a submarine battle in 1968?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 How close was the Soviet Union to collapsing during WW2?
- 📝 Was there a pre-determined arrangement for the division of Germany in case it surrendered before any Soviet forces entered its territory?
- 📝 What determined which companies went to which post-Soviet republics after the fall of the Soviet Union as everything was centralized in Moscow?
- 📝 Was there any terrorism in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did the Romans see Africa as a black continent? Was there a perception of a divide between Africa and Europe?
- 📝 Was there any connection between the Ottonians and Benedictines?
- 📝 Are there ways to measure "how much power did "Russia" lose when the Soviet Union broke up?"
- 📝 Between the 7 Years War and 1776, was there any effort to have the colonies represented in Parliament?
- 📝 Was there any conflict/interaction between the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam?
- 📝 Who thought there might be a war between the British Empire and the United States of America in the 1920s?
- 📝 What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?
- 📝 Why was there a surge of writings about the Illuminati in America in the late 1910's?
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union officially justify the need for foreign travel and emigration restrictions?
- 📝 Was there contact between the Inca, Maya and Aztecs?
- 📝 What was the impact of Fischer vs. Spassky 1972 on the relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Is there evidence that scrubbing floors on one's hands and knees was a commonplace drudgery for women in the past?
- 📝 Was there any influence between the Gracchus reforms and the end of the republic?
- 📝 How did Jews feels in the Confederate States of America and what was their political position?