Title: The Cold War comes to Main Street
First published: 1999
Description: Revealing the intense interplay between foreign policy, domestic politics, and public opinion, Lisle Rose argues that 1950 was a pivotal year for the nation. Thermonuclear terror brought "a clutching fear of mass death," even as McCarthy's zealous campaign to root out "subversives" destroyed a sense of national community forged in the Great Depression and World War II.

The Korean War, with its dramatic oscillations between victory and defeat, put the finishing touches on this national mood of crisis and hysteria. Drawing upon recently available Russian and Chinese sources, Rose sheds much new light on the aggressive designs of Stalin, Mao, and North Korea's Kim Il Sung in East Asia and places the American reaction to the North Korean invasion in a new and more realistic context.

Rose argues that the convergence of Korea, McCarthy, and the Bomb wounded the nation in ways from which we've never fully recovered. He suggests, in fact, that the convergence may have paved the way for our involvement in Vietnam and, by eroding public trust in and support for government, launched the ultra-Right's campaign to dismantle the foundations of modern American liberalism.
Subjects: Cold War, History, Politics and government, Social aspects, Social aspects of Cold War, Social life and customs, Aspect social, Guerre froide, Politik, Manners and customs, Publieke opinie, Cold War (1945-1989) fast (OCoLC)fst01754978, Moeurs et coutumes, Histoire, Zivilisation, Politique et gouvernement, Koude Oorlog, Ost-West-Konflikt, Binnenlandse politiek, United states, history, 1945-, Mccarthy, joseph, 1908-1957, Korean war, 1950-1953
Places: United States
Time periods: 1945-1953, 1945-1970
LC classification: E813 .R56 1999