The cold war was not the best time in history. Everyone was recovering from the effects of World War II. People were scared of things that the president had to respond to accordingly. There was different changes being added to the world along with a change of presidency at the end of this time period. People were beginning to fear things like the spread of communism and the red scare which meant the president had more to worry about than just external affairs, he had to worry about internal affairs.
Once the end of the second world war came around, there was so many people scared of communism spreading especially to the weaker and poorer countries.First China became communist and the US supported Chaing Kai-Shek in the election but his opponent, Mao Zedong who is communist, won instead. Joseph McCarthy was a senator who attacked multiple people, said those people were communists, and made up almost every thing he said about them and once he was shown on television this truth was shown about him.
John Foster dulles said “If world communism capture any American state a new and perilous front is established which will increase the danger to the entire free world and require even greater sacrifices from the American people.” Most people in America thought of communism as a domino effect. This meant that they believed if one nation were to fall to communism then so would its neighboring nations. The US started fighting many places to help keep communism from spreading and a Truman Doctrine was created, it promised to keep communism in Europe. In 1945 a press conference was held and Eisenhower spoke at it, he said “We are fearing what unwise investigators will do to us here at home as they try to combat subversion or bribery or deceit within. We fear depression; we fear the loss of jobs.” For the majority of this time period Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president.
Since he was the president it was his job to address the issues going on and help find a way to deal with it. He created his own doctrine, the Eisenhower Doctrine, that stopped the spread of communism throughout the Middle East and Western Europe. Eisenhower stated at a press conference in 1945 that there is too much hysteria.You know, the world is suffering from a multiplicity of fears the men in the kremlin and what they will do to our friends around them. Another thing Eisenhower created was the Interstate Highway Program, the single largest public works program across the country in U.S. history. The Saturday Evening Post said: “On last June twenty-ninth, with President Eisenhower’s signature, one of the most astounding pieces of legislation in history quietly became a law….
That new title – the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways – tells the story of the road network which will receive the major portion of the brave new effort to get this country out of its national traffic jam” (Doc D).
