The Effects of Cold War on a Society - Essay Example

The domestic influence of the Cold War brought to their prominent leadership anti-communist presidents such as Truman, Kennedy, and Nixon who not only waged political and cultural battles with the Soviet Union but also fought with the latter in the endeavor to achieve greater favor for the American economy. Though the nature of the Cold War bore domestic consequences upon local affairs, political battles between the Soviet Union and the United States were mostly staged on an international level.

By the time ‘Sputnik’ took off, most schools functioned as fighting grounds in allowing intellectual ideas to flourish over ideological conflicts of the 50s and this incident drew education to a sense of drastic reformation that appeared to radicalize certain schools of thoughts in various levels. Democratic enthusiasts would normally stress that acquisition of a good scholastic foundation was beyond primary necessity, being accountability and contribution to gaining victory over the communists so that state and federal sovereignties expressed support through the generous funding of academic institutions. Fields of maths and sciences had been able to receive more than sufficient financial assistance with adequate books and facilities.

Americans at the time felt it was their intrinsic responsibility to buy commodities to support economic growth and this stage marked the growing superiority of the US in the global market. This nature of commerce eventually set the trend for the culture of consumerism to soar to heights, allowing Americans to extend patriotism to economic and philanthropic efforts across other nations around the world (Foner, 878). With tremendous economic power, the Americans continued advocacy for free-market capitalism while the Soviets maintained loyalty to communist ideals. Either side highly aimed for the respective citizens to acquire a better form of liberty from the advantage of the prevailing ideological system. To the Americans, this alluded further triumph and progress with the innovative capacity and affluence of capitalism whereas communism was perceived to equate with oppression. When the Soviets adopted egalitarianism though, they accused the West of being materialistic and greedy.

The Cold War, moreover, encouraged the Civil Rights Movement as the US declared its democracy to be remarkable, claiming that communism diminished human rights and individual freedoms. Despite such an image of idealism, however, American citizens especially African Americans were deprived of civil liberties on the actual but such hypocrisy did not go unnoticed by the upper layer of the administration or by African-American leaders. According to President Truman, the choice between freedom and slavery may only be promoted to peoples of other foreign lands once the US manages to correct the misbehavior of democracy within its confines (Foner, 857).