6.4 Cold War Conflicts and Domestic Politics

Learning Target 26: Analyze how the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics between the end of World War II and 1991.

The Cold War dominated international politics and impacted domestic politics in the United States for almost 45 years. The intense rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union led to the creation of alliances, an arms race, and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. The Cold War also affected international politics in the Middle East and Latin America.

The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was a direct confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It brought the world close to nuclear war over the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from the U.S. coast.

The Cold War affected domestic politics. It led to the Second Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism. The space race between the U.S. and Soviet Union led the U.S. to increase spending on science education.

The Korean War also fed into the anti-communist hysteria of the late 1940s and 1950s. The United States was able to secure support from the United Nations for the defense of South Korea while the Soviet Union was boycotting the United Nations Security Council.

Continued U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War divided the U.S. and sparked widespread protests. Spending for the war came at the expense of the domestic programs launched by President Johnson. This led to urban unrest in the 1960s. The Vietnam War was a dominant issue in the presidential campaigns of 1968 and 1972. The difficulties and eventual withdrawal from Vietnam led to concerted efforts on part of the U.S. to find allies in future conflicts.

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