Cold War and Domestic Politics in America

In the years 1953-1954, 1957-1958, and 1960-1961, the economic recession in American society put severe pressure on the community, particularly African Americans who faced racial discrimination during these periods, especially in the Southern states of the U.S. The Cuban crisis and the threat of nuclear war in October 1962 brought the world to the brink of World War III, which could have led to a nuclear conflict. John F. Kennedy, during his presidency, promised to support all peoples facing the threat of communism, while being acutely aware of the dangers of nuclear war. In the fall of 1962, the Soviet Union deployed intermediate-range missile launchers in Cuba, raising the risk of a military attack on America to its highest level. Kennedy's military advisors advocated for a direct military strike on Cuba, but he rejected their proposals and pursued diplomacy, giving the Soviets a deadline and ultimatum to dismantle the missile weapons from Cuba, subsequently ordering a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent Russian ships from reaching its shores. Kennedy's televised speech announcing the naval blockade of Cuba eventually led to Nikita Khrushchev ordering the removal of missiles from Cuba on October 28, 1962, provided that the United States would not attempt to overthrow the communist regime in Cuba. In a reciprocal move, the United States dismantled its missile bases in Turkey. Marcos Kampa writes that in 2002, a former Soviet military commander revealed at an international historians' conference that the Soviet Union had deployed 42 missiles and about 80 tactical nuclear bombs in Cuba without informing the U.S. To prevent nuclear war, red phones were installed in Washington and Moscow. The Russian, American, and British leaders signed the first nuclear treaty on August 5, 1963, which was a step towards preventing nuclear war. On one hand, John F. Kennedy tried to save the world from a global nuclear war, while on the other hand, he focused his efforts on developing non-nuclear and conventional military weapon production. Additionally, he pursued counterinsurgency operations in connection with psychological warfare to combat guerrilla movements in the Third World, aiming to prevent the advancement and development of communist movements globally. Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba, ordered the deployment of 11,000 American soldiers to South Vietnam to train Vietnamese soldiers in 1963. Meanwhile, many European leaders feared the withdrawal of military forces from Europe. Five months before Kennedy was assassinated, he expressed solidarity with the Germans in Berlin by stating, 'I am a Berliner,' thus increasing his popularity in Germany. The Indochina Wars, particularly the Vietnam War (1955-1957), have a historical relationship with the First Indochina War, meaning the Second Indochina War. The Vietnam War is referred to as the Second Indochina War, both being deadly proxy wars between the West and the East, between communist and capitalist countries. France waged a bloody war against the Vietnamese communists from 1946 to 1954 to avoid losing its colony in Vietnam. France was determined to defend its colonial achievements, but the Vietnamese guerrilla forces, with military assistance from China, entered the war against France, while the U.S. supported France. The division of Vietnam in 1954 was a result of the Cold War. After the division of Vietnam, China and Russia defended Laos and Cambodia from 1970 onwards. In early August 1967, North Vietnamese military boats fired on two American warships for unknown reasons. Subsequently, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to autonomously issue orders for military operations in Vietnam. Johnson increased the number of American soldiers twentyfold within three years, from 23,000 to 475,000. In 1973, a ceasefire was declared in Vietnam, and by May 1975, communist forces from North Vietnam occupied South Vietnam. The exact number of casualties in the Vietnam War is unclear, with estimates ranging from two to five million Vietnamese killed. Approximately 1.3 million Vietnamese soldiers died, along with about 60,000 American soldiers and 5,200 soldiers from other Western countries in these proxy wars. Additionally, 300,000 American soldiers were wounded and disabled, and 300,000 soldiers went missing in action. This casualty count is beyond human comprehension. Here, the historical details of U.S. domestic policies during Richard Nixon's presidency will not be addressed, but it may be worth recalling a historical event: the hippie movement in their opposition to the war, which peaked at the Woodstock festival. Democrats and Racism Until 1954, serious segregation and racial discrimination existed in American schools. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican and the sitting president, appointed Earl Warren, a liberal judge, to the Supreme Court to combat racism. In May 1954, Warren ruled that racial segregation in schools violated the U.S. Constitution and must be abolished. Martin Luther King, an African American pastor, led the nonviolent resistance movement. Under pressure from the civil rights movement against racism, the U.S. Congress was eventually compelled to pass the Civil Rights Act in 1957 and the Equal Voting Rights Act in 1960. The economic recession and the exorbitant costs of military weapons negatively impacted social growth in America, ultimately leading to the election of John F. Kennedy, a Democratic president who sought new national values. During those years, the movement against racism in the United States grew stronger every day, and communist countries exploited these serious social issues for their state propaganda. In August 1963, about 250,000 people protested against racism in Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous speech titled 'I Have a Dream.' A hundred years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and following John F. Kennedy's proposal to outlaw racial segregation in all public places, this proposal was officially passed as law in 1964, although Kennedy was no longer alive, having been assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. In America, the social movement against racism continued during the presidency of the thirty-sixth president (1963 to 1969), President Johnson. Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1964 for his support of nonviolent social resistance. Nevertheless, bloody riots in neighborhoods where African Americans lived led to the emergence of the Black Nationalism movement by Malcolm X. In the 1970s, social movements achieved significant successes, allowing Black students to attend white schools. In a historical summary, it must be emphasized that the movement against racism is inseparable from the Indochina Wars, as the majority of American soldiers were Black. From another perspective, between 1960 and 1970, the relative welfare of African Americans improved by 24% compared to previous decades. Watergate The shock of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal led to a distrust of American politics. During the 1972 presidential election, the Democratic Party headquarters was broken into, and there were attempts to install listening devices. The perpetrators were arrested, and evidence emerged in court sessions indicating that President Richard Nixon himself was involved in this operation. Nixon, a Republican, refused to disclose recorded tapes that could clarify the matter until 1974. After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release all documents, it officially became clear that he was involved in this affair, leading to his resignation on August 8, 1974, although he was never found guilty. Gerald Ford, a Republican and the thirty-eighth president of the United States, pardoned Nixon for all his crimes. Nixon, like Trump, harbored a hatred for the media and even insulted and threatened a journalist in January 1972. Nixon was the first U.S. president to visit Moscow after World War II, signing arms agreements and attempting to normalize relations with China. Regarding U.S. domestic policy, Nixon believed he was in a security war and thus his presidency was closely tied to Watergate. He was strongly opposed to leftist movements in America and considered the left to be the main security problem in the U.S., viewing Democrats as his and America's security enemies. The Hungarian Uprising At the end of this article, a brief mention is made of the popular uprising in Hungary in 1956. On October 23, 1956, a large number of Hungarian workers went on strike and held massive demonstrations, with students showing solidarity through widespread protests. That night, the demonstrations led to a nationwide popular uprising. On November 1, 1956, the Hungarian government withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, but a few days later, the military forces of the totalitarian Soviet dictatorship occupied Hungary and brutally suppressed the Hungarian Revolution. People lived under the oppression of the Soviet regime and military in communist dictatorships. The Cold War led to security policies in the United States, wars in Southeast Asia, and the suppression of democratic movements in Eastern Europe.