How did the Communist takeover of China and the Soviet explosion of an atomic bomb affect the United States?

1 Answer
May 1, 2016

It heightened existing tensions in the context of post war politics.

Explanation:

With the division of Europe at the end of World War 2, into East and West and the emergence of the Soviet Union and the USA, as the two superpowers, there was heightened tension. Other developments such as the Soviet acquisition of the bomb and the coming to power of a communist government in China added to this tension if not paranoia in the USA.

Subsequent examples would be the trial and execution of the Rosenbergs for spying, the beginning of the McCarthy witch-hunts, and the House on Un-American Activities Committee and its attacks on Hollywood.

Such tension lasted throughout the 50's and reached a climax in 1962 with the Cuban missile crisis which brought the USA and Soviet Union close to nuclear war.

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