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Cold War Radar

Fear at Home

As these tensions rose, there was fear across the world of nuclear war.  This was especially true after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.  People began to build fallout shelters and schools taught students to hide under their desks.  Many students remember the famous cartoon turtle Bert who taught them to ‘Duck and Cover’.

This fear also translated into witch hunts to find communists.  In the United States, the Federal Loyalty Program was created to remove communists from the government, making employees take an oath of loyalty and against communism.

This was the time of the ‘Red Scare’.  Following the Second World War, Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin accused people of being communists.  This drama swept the nation, playing into these fears.  He said that he had proof of communist involvement at the top of the military and government.  No other politicians dared to speak against him in fear they would be called out as communist.