2. Cold War at home
Federal employees were analyzed to
determine whether they were sufficiently
loyal to the government (2nd Red Scare)
Joseph R. McCarthy, investigated
allegations of subversive elements in the
government and the Hollywood film
industry
People built bomb shelters in their
backyards. They practiced attack drills in
schools and other public places
1950s & 1960s movies played into
people’s fears of nuclear annihilation by
portraying nuclear devastation or
mutated creatures
3. Foreign Policy and the Cold War
American officials encouraged the
development of atomic weapons like the
ones that had ended World War II
United States announced that they
would build an even more destructive
atomic weapon: the hydrogen bomb,
USSR followed suit (nuclear arms race)
Domino Theory-when one country falls
to communist influence the adjacent
countries follow suit.
in the late 1950s, space would become
another dramatic arena for this
competition, as each side sought to prove
the superiority of its technology
4. Space Race
On October 4, 1957, launched Sputnik
(Russian for "traveler"), the world's first
artificial satellite and the first man-made
object to be placed into the Earth's orbit
Americans believed that space was the next
frontier and thus could not be lost to the
Soviets
1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite,
Explorer I
July 20, 1969 the United States became the
first to land on the moon, winning the
space race
