Though religion is usually a huge part of history, it is actually the least discussed when talking about the Cold War. With the atheistic nature of communism and the powerful influence of Christianity in America the two were destined to fight. America propaganda cast the Cold War as one of history’s great religious wars, between and the God-fearing. Eisenhower, who served as president from 1954 to 1961, used religion to persuade the world that America was a forced for good in the international arena. The resulting anti-communist crusade had profound consequences for Christian America, contributing to both religious revival and religious repression in the early Cold War period. During the 1950s, nationwide church membership grew at a faster rate than the population, from 57 percent to 63.3 percent. This was the period that nuclear weapons really came into play, so people were trying to find peace before what they thought could be the …show more content…
The biggest one was surrounding the nuclear weapons. For the first time Americans realized that we had something that would not only destroy our enemies but could destroy the world. American continued its patriotic views for the first time in a long time not everyone agreed with the decisions. With the threat of a nuclear war hanging about everyone’s heads, survivalism kicked in. People were not building bunkers, stashing non-perishable items, even having nuclear bomb drills in schools. Another huge social impact was the fact that they stopped trusting their neighbors. The most paranoid of Americans believed that everyone that did not see the same as they did or questioned the government was automatically a spy for Russia. During the Cold War, information was a key commodity. It was vital to know what the adversary was up to. Instead of having advanced technology like we do today, they relied on spies. The fear of communism began with the Loyal Program by Harry Truman, which called for allegiance to the United States by federal employees under the penalty of immediate termination. In 1950 the Subversive Activities Control Board was created which officially allowed authorities to in investigate suspected communist-controlled