Discuss the Impact of the Cold War on Australian Society in the 1950’s and 1960’s During the Cold War Era, Australian society was profoundly affected due to our involvement as a loyal ally to both America and Great Britain. As a result, a fear of communism in and around Australia developed and lead to a lot of tension around the country. As countries in both Europe and Asia were taken over by communist powers, the threat of communism became a genuine fear within Australian society. Many Australians were concerned that with communism spreading rapidly throughout the world, it would not be long before Australia would undergo the same fate. As if to reinforce the fear of communism, two spies working on behalf of the Soviet Embassy were discovered in an event known as the Petrov Affair and reignited the fear of communism which became stronger than ever before.
There were many voiced disagreements, such as arguments about the details of the boundaries between the 4 zones, and the amount of reparations Russia wanted from Germany. Also, Truman was upset that Stalin had arrested the non-communist leaders of Poland, which was against the government of national unity that they’d previously agreed on. Another concern was when Truman dropped the atomic bomb in the US. Truman did this so that
A great deal of the American public became extremely paranoid, and the general atmosphere of the era was nihilistic due to fear of Communist infiltration. McCarthy successfully exploited the relevant situation in order to rise in power; he became considerably popular in the media and gained a reputation as a fear monger. Therefore, when television reporter Edward R. Murrow of See It Now gradually exposed McCarthy for his unethical use of the media, he was commonly viewed as the only one brave enough to speak out against him. The plan worked, but at a great cost. McCarthy eventually lost much of his power, but due to financial troubles with NBC, See It Now was discontinued.
Ashley Ross History II Dr. Moon 17 June 2012 Chapters 43-51: Cold War During the Cold War many Americans were on edge due to threats about the Soviet Union creating a nuclear war, and also about the Communists having a major influence on the government and schools. Because of the Russians launching the first satellite, the number of students taking science courses increased dramatically. In addition, it help keep the United States ahead of the Soviets in the Space Race. Schools were where many people believed conflict began.
And most importantly, the economy of the Soviet Union was in ruins after the U.S.S.R had chose to spend massive amounts of money on wars and the arms race. The world saw many of the U.S.S.R's failures in Afghanistan and took immediate advantage of it. Although there could be many reasons behind the U.S.S.R invading Afghanistan, it was officially to support the government of Afghanistan against the Islamic Mujahideen Resistance. The Mujahideen were being supported by the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and the Pakistan government and obviously the U.S.S.R would be conflicted. When the war started off, U.S.S.R didn't expect it to be a decade-long war.
When I hear the word war, the things that first come out in my mind were destructions, deaths, famine, guns and terrors. If we are going to look back in our history, a lot of wars had happened. One of those was “the bombing of Pearl Harbor drew ire of the people of the United States. The bombing was regarded as treacherous, and it was just a matter of time that the Americans would declare war against Japan.” (Muhi and Maguigad 169) The US – Japan war was one of the most known destructive wars. It greatly affects the life of the Japanese and the other nationalist because the missile that was launched emits radiation which affects lots of people.
Vocabulary changed too “terrorism” “bomb” and “terror attacks” were terms used regularly and became a social norm with “war” being added to the list when Iraq was invaded. The acceptable images that were broadcast during this time were also changing the American use of a deck of cards as a hit list of people they wanted dead was a regular occurrence as were images of victories and injured soldiers. While all the graphic images were being beamed into our homes, printed in our newspapers and magazines the music industry was struggling with many radio stations choosing to censor music quite drastically. Many artists and bands had to change to avoid censorship. The attacks by Al Qaeda on September 11th were co-ordinated and calculated they hit the heart of capitalism and also the Pentagon another plane was ditched in a field in Pennsylvania which may have been heading for Washington D.C. almost three thousand people from many different countries were killed that day so the effects were felt world-wide.
Fear of the other country laying influence of their ideology, as a means to gain power, tensions rose. These tensions were fueled by the truman doctrine, which requested 400 million from congress to help combat communism in greece and turkey. The purpose of the Truman doctrine was to provide American economic and military assistance to any nation threatened by communism. The US feared the encroaching soviet strength, which perpetually launched them into an arms race with the U.S.S.R. The Soviets broke the US nuclear monopoly, and that struck fear into all americans, there is now someone just as dangerous as you are.
Mass Media author, Jennifer Akins, states “…because the media are so prevalent in industrialized countries, they have a powerful impact on how those populations view the world.” This shows that people rely on the media for views on the world. Akin also states “…it is often in the media’s interest to not only report conflict, but to play it up, making it seem more intense than it really is.” For example, when there is a strike taking place at a company, the media crew and the reporter would make the protesters start chanting and hold up their placards once the camera would be on. Then there are situations where people would see the story and how extreme the situation is then immediately look at the race of the people involved to determine a stereotype. In the end, this would lead to racial profiling. One race that is used with many stereotypes based on the media and society are Hispanics.
The Cold War was the result of underlying friction between the two superpowers of the day and their respective followers. It is seen by many today to have been the inevitable result of the tensions that had developed before, during and after the Second World War, between the East and the West. It was a conflict of Capitalism and Democracy as represented by the West and, on the other side, Communism as personified by the USSR and its satellite states The Cold War might not have been totally inevitable, but due to the background causes that I will examine and the ideological conflicts the occurrence of the Cold War was almost inevitable. The framework for the ideological conflict of the Cold War was in place by early 1918. When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in October 1917, communism came to the fore as an issue in international relations.