The United States had not been on good standings with the Soviet Union.

As the Soviet Union began

showing signs of agitation, the United States united more firmly against communism through the beliefs
of the American people and propaganda used. Therefore, the Cold War between the US and the USSR
was started and kept in motion because of political tension, propaganda, and general mistrust of the
Soviets from the American people.

The Soviet Union had tensions between itself and nearby countries before and at the start of the Cold
War. It had already had attempts at invasion made against it twice, once by Napoleon and once by
Hitler, as stated in Document 1. These attempts at invasion, although both failing, made the Soviet
Union wary towards Poland and Germany, which was seen as the enemy. As Document 1 states, the
control of Poland would not just be a question of honor for the Soviets, but also a matter of security as
control of Poland would equal control of the space through which attempted invasions had already
occurred twice in the past. This would provide the Soviet Union with more security as well as a buffer in
Europe, which could potentially be used against the United States and Britain. The Soviet Union spread
its tension between itself and other countries, especially the United States, to its people as well, which is
seen in Document 5. On both sides the support of the people was key to the war, so the spreading of
tensions to all of the people on each side allowed for increased support as they would see the severity
of the situation.

Propaganda played a major part in spurring on the Cold War on both sides as well. On the Soviet side,
radio broadcasts were used to convince the people that the United States and Britain were the enemy
and that both violated terms made during the Yalta Conference (Document 5). Propaganda was even
used in British newspapers, as seen in Document 6. Britain was on the side of the United States during
the Cold War, so propaganda like this political cartoon were valuable tools in getting the people to
support the United States’ cause of defending capitalism and democracy. Cold War propaganda was
rampant in the United States itself as well. Events such as Whitaker Chamber’s testimony of being a
member of the United States Communist Party, on top of the propaganda, spurred the American people
towards uniting against the threat of communism (Document 7). As well as uniting the American people,
this testimony also contributed towards a furthered mistrust of the Soviet Union by Americans.

History repeated itself as the American people united over their fear of communism at the start of the
Cold War, exactly like they did during the Red Scare in the 1920s, although the threat was much more
real this time. Instead of the fear of communism being spread by immigrants to the United States, the
fear was now that the Soviet Union itself would spread communism to neighboring countries and
eventually even further. The polls seen in Document 2 demonstrate how the people of the United
States had largely united their beliefs against the Soviet Union. People largely believed that the Soviet
Union would not want to cooperate with the United States and would instead work to build itself up
into the world’s ruling power. Even state officials agreed with this viewpoint. George Kennan in
particular spread his opinion that the Soviets could not be reasoned with, an opinion that the majority
of Americans shared (Document 3). This shared opinion and viewpoint between so many Americans
united the country in an even more desperate campaign against the very real threat of communism
spreading.

The desire to stop the spread of communism is similar to the current desire to stop the spread of
terrorism. The American people are united by a common belief that terrorism should be eliminated.
There is still some mistrust of the American government as well, just like there was in 1945 to 1950.