8B - Cold War Tensions at Home

term related to Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin. - Senator) who investigated alleged communists he said worked in the State department.  He also accused those allegedly associated with known communist.  This resulted in U.S. citizens being arrested for suspected communist affiliation. *

 an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives created in 1938 to inquire into subversive activities in the U.S. (It was abolished in 1975.) In the mid-1940s, the committee focused its investigations on searching for communists in the United States. Most famous for investigating Alger Hiss and for the “blacklisting” of many Hollywood actors. Often inaccurately associated with Joseph McCarthy, who was a Senator (not a member of the House); McCarthy chaired the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 1953-1954. *

After WWII, the U.S. and Soviet Union became superpowers. The two had competing ideologies and competed in an arms race for almost 50 years. After the devastation following Truman’s decision to use atomic weaponry and resulting arms race, fear among U.S. citizens prompted worry of a nuclear disaster and the building of bomb shelters.

The Soviet Union launched SPUTNIK I in 1957, which was the first spacecraft to orbit the earth. The US created NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and increased funding for math and science education in order to remain technologically superior compared to the Soviet Union.