.
Back in the states, Senator Joseph McCarthy was conducting hearings, naming suspected communists that included State Department employees, " McCarthy brandished what he said was a list of 205 known Communists in the State Department" (Nash 893). These hearings invoked panic within the American people. McCarthy would be found to not contain proof of any active communists whatsoever operating within our government or otherwise.
These two events are rooted at the natural aggression against Communism. Communism being the natural enemy of capitalism from which the United States is founded, will draw us in a war that will out live the decade of the 1950s. In fact, not until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 does this animosity dissipate against Russia and other nations, and even afterward the lingering affects of Cuba continue on to present day.
The terror of communism came along hand in hand with the fear of nuclear war. Bomb shelters were being built and added not only to commercial, but also residential buildings after the discovery that the Soviets had attained such weapons. "The discovery of fallout provoked a shelter craze. Bob Russell, a Michigan sheriff, declared that "to build a new home in this day and age without including such an obvious necessity as a fallout shelter would be like leaving out the bathroom 20 years ago" (Nash 889). This fear of nuclear war was crippling, as an outside force posed a threat to our peaceful life and much more our peace of mind. .
But just as the threat of nuclear war oppressed many from outside of the United States another group of individuals were being oppressed from within. The minorities, namely the African Americans, were being segregated, abused, and treated inhumanly. The push for equal rights amongst U.S. citizens created the civil rights movement. " African Americans, encouraged by their churches, began organizing themselves to take direct action, and their efforts significantly advanced the civil rights movement" (Nash 950).