How Cold War Politics Impacted Social Change at Home After WWII (Essay Sample)

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Explain how Cold War Politics Impacted Social Change at Home After WWII
The Cold War had a far-reaching influence on many aspects of social development in the United States during much of the second half of the 20th century. The ideological warfare escalated due to opposing values between the Soviet Union, representing authoritarianism and communism, and the United States, representing democracy and capitalism. Although the Cold War impacted primarily the American foreign policy and military engagements, it caused decades long impacts on social change at home. This is clearly evidenced by the various political, cultural and economic events that shaped America’s domestic policy after the Second World War.
The most important social changes caused by the Cold War at home was the rapid development in terms of economic prosperity. Capitalizing on the economic base left after the Second World War, the American society became extremely affluent in the post war years. The postwar public policies established funds that enabled veterans and their dependants to purchase homes, attend colleges, buy farms and establish businesses. The overall impact of such such policies was great and aided many families to climb up the social ladder in unprecedented rates. However, not everybody in America participated in the growing economic prosperity and expanding social opportunities. Minority groups were subjugated to the periphery of the society despite the United States being the champion of social liberties.[Malcolm X. The Ballot or the Bullet. Cleveland, Ohio, April 3, 1964]
One of these minority groups consisted of African Americans and other racially segregated groups such as American Hispanics and American Asians. X explains this emotively when he states, “you and I in America are faced with a segregationist conspiracy”. He further states, “this government has failed the Negro”. Evidently, as the American society embarked on reorganizing itself politically, economically and socially after the Second World War, racial inequality became a major social problem. Despite blacks being freed from slavery almost a century before the Second World War, they were still treated as second-class citizens in many American states immediately after the war. As Martin Luther King explains in the Letter From a Birmingham Jail, racial discrimination was a major social blemish institutionalized in the American society. It was common in many states particularly in the South. He regrets that “it is even unfortunate that the white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative”.[Malcolm X. The Ballot or the Bullet. Cleveland, Ohio, April 3, 1964] [Malcolm X. The Ballot or the Bullet. Cleveland, Ohio, April 3, 1964] [Bass Jonathan. Blessed Are The Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2001.]
The reality and image of the elusive socio-economic prosperity for the African Americans and the difficulty of upward mobility for this racial group soon became apparent outside the US. As a consequence, America’s arch enemy, the Soviet Union began to use A...