Was anybody here alive during the cold war ?

[Stevicus]

I recall that the Cold War was also characterized by a lot of red baiting. If people expressed views which were outside of the parameters of what some people considered acceptable, they might have been dismissed or lambasted as some kind of "communist," "pinko," etc. Even though the McCarthy era was over, the same mentality lingered on to some degree - and still even exists today.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I recall that the Cold War was also characterized by a lot of red baiting. If people expressed views which were outside of the parameters of what some people considered acceptable, they might have been dismissed or lambasted as some kind "communist," "pinko," etc. Even though the McCarthy era was over, the same mentality lingered on to some degree - and still even exists today.

During years of Trade Union activism, I was frequently told “if you don’t like it, why don’t you eff off to Russia?” Which was a bit tiresome.

 

[Stevicus]

During years of Trade Union activism, I was frequently told “if you don’t like it, why don’t you eff off to Russia?” Which was a bit tiresome.

Yeah, the old "love it or leave it" argument.

 

[Quagmire]

I grew up in the '60s and '70s and as far as the Cold War goes it was a time of constant "Russia/Soviets/Communism=Bad" brainwashing for us kids, mostly via entertainment ala TV and movies.

They even showed up as the villians in our cartoons:

 

[Kathryn]

I was born in the early 1960s so I was alive but not yet in school. Oh I was also alive and very aware of it when the Berlin Wall came down! I was in my 20s.

This song always made me think of it:

 

[wellwisher]

And if so what was it like ?

During WWII, Russia had been allies with Germany, until Hitler double crossed Russia and invaded. Russia then became more of an ally with the USA and the other Allies in Europe, since they all had the same common enemy. The Cold War stemmed from Russia annexing a large area of Eastern Europe, as a buffer zone, since with their common enemy; Germany, now defeated, they were no longer buddies with the USA. These was two different cultures; Capitalism versus Socialism. The NAZI and USSR were both socialist/communist movements.

The 1950's caused the Cold War to intensify, due to two new inventions. The first was the hydrogen bomb, first developed by the USA in 1952 and then by the USSR in 1953. The second was the start of the space race; Russian built Sputnik in 1957. Being able to send a rocket into earth orbit, allowed the new wild card; long range nuclear war. This potential made everyone paranoid.

Schools would practice hiding under desks when the air raid siren sounded. Cities and citizens in the USA, which never had World War on its soil, started to build bomb shelters in case of nuclear attack. That added to the paranoia. I was young, in the 1960's but remember making note of where city bomb shelters were, and would even try to guess where they would attack; biggest cities, industrial areas, so I could hide behind the best wall in our basement; one that faces the explosion. This way you, when your house was swept away by the blast, it would not fall on you. Being underground will protect you from the radiation pulse. Learn that in school.

Ironically, as both sides improved space travel and both optimized and built up their nuclear arsenals, to where each could destroy the world many times over, the idea of mutual destruction appeared; nobody would win. This cooled things off, and it became more like spy-v-spy, with cat and mouse games, and proxy wars, but nothing major in terms of a direct USA or USSR conflict or war. China also developed nuclear weapons as did other countries.

President Reagan led the charge to end the USSR and the Cold War. This was assisted by Reagan's US military build up and another major innovation; miniaturization and integrated circuits. The US could build smaller, smarter, and more compact technology; fast moving state of the art that Russian could not keep up with. Russian could build huge rockets for bulky computers. We could go compact.

However, it was the war with Iraq and Sudan Hussein, under George Bush Sr, they caused Russia to throw in the towel; Europe was liberated. The Iraq war allowed the world to see all of USA's new military technology in action, destroying Iraq's war machine with very few USA casualties. The USA military had installed the GPS satellite system in space, and it also had new pin point weapons, tanks and cruise missiles, that could hit through smoke and poor visibility.