Rethinking the Cold War

Anna K. Nelson

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
8 (Winter 1994). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1994, Organization of American Historians

In the summer of 1986, the OAH Magazine of History included a special section on the Cold War. In that year, the articles reflected the special concerns of historians forty years after the close of World War II. Most were heavily influenced by either the ideological struggles between the two superpowers or the national security issues that dominated the historical discussion of the period. Even the article that analyzed baseball as representative of American culture during the Cold War reflected the ideological beliefs that marked the American view of the U.S.S.R. Other issues that influenced the historical discussion in 1986 included the dangers of war in a nuclear age and the search for the origins of the Soviet and American confrontation. Historians had begun the inevitable process of "revision," challenging the more traditional views of the origins of the Cold War. Three years after the publication of these articles, the Berlin Wall cracked and fell. For all practical purposes the Cold War was over.

Meanwhile, American historians had been studying the social and cultural impact of the decades delineated by the Cold War era. The results are already apparent. Our perspective on the years following World War II has been enlarged and our views and sources broadened. There is now the realization that American society, culture, science and technology, as well as national security policy, was forever changed during the Cold War era. After all, it was a period marked first by the infringement of civil liberties, usually labeled McCarthyism; followed by the movement for protection and expansion of civil rights; followed in turn by a deepening dismay with the seemingly endless Viet Nam war. This period was also marked by the manifestations of consumerism; the changing role of women within both the family and the marketplace; and the widespread growth of popular culture, particularly youth culture.

The articles and lesson plans that follow reflect this new and broader view of the last forty-five years of American history. Nothing in this broadened perspective should indicate a neglect or denigration of U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations, other national security issues, or the nuclear threat. In many ways, the tensions created by issues of national security and nuclear war defined all the other issues and activities of the era. The article by Robert D. Schul-zinger, the extensive lesson plan by Susan J. Cunningham and the documentary study of the Cuban Missile Crisis all emphasize the importance of national security issues.

These issues are balanced by other articles and lesson plans that reflect the current interest of historians in the emergence of a more complex and diverse America. Norman L. and Emily S. Rosen-berg discuss the debates over mass and youth culture and the social tensions created by well-educated entering the work force, tying these issues to the rhetoric and policies of the Cold War.

Donald A. Ritchie and Ron Briley illustrate through brief articles and lesson plans that students enjoy many opportunities to look beyond their textbooks, maps and film strips in examining post-war America. As Ritchie points out, students can produce "research" in their own communities through the use of oral interviews with relatives or neighbors who lived through the pervasive changes of the last fifty years. Briley shows that Hollywood films, now readily available on videotape, can be seen as primary sources for understanding American responses to a changing world. Meanwhile, as noted in the lesson plan on the Cuban Missile Crises prepared by Linda Karen Miller and Mary McAuliffe, students now have access to original documents that can provide a window to the policy process.

Readers may be surprised to see an article and lesson plan in this issue on the space program. The impact of the Cold War on science and technology, however, is now a subject of considerable interest to historians. Americans were thrilled by the new frontier in space, but as Rita G. Koman notes, U.S. officials were far more concerned over the challenge presented by Soviet space technology. This selection is designed to draw attention to the close relationship between the Cold War and the changing nature of science and technology in the last fifty years.

The bibliography of the Cold War is vast. In order to help the readers sort through this cornucopia of books and articles, the authors have contributed a list of sources they have found most useful.

This selection of articles and lesson plans is well described by the phrase "Re-thinking the Cold War." It is not a definitive treatment of that period because it lies too close to the present. The next generation and succeeding ones will also re-examine this seminal period in American history, adding the perceptions and insights gained by generations entirely free of memory. We can only wonder about the conclusions of future generations as they once again "re-think" the Cold War.

Anna K. Nelson began her teaching career in a high school classroom. She is currently a member of the History Department of The American University where she teaches courses relating to U.S. foreign policy. Her research has focused on the National Security Council (N.C.S.) and the national security process in the first decades of the Cold War.