Terrorism, Nuclear Threat, and the Red Scare Essay

Terrorism, Nuclear Threat, And the Red Scare

With the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombings still echoing in the minds of many Americans just weeks after the devastating terrorist attack took place, the residual fear and uncertainty that resulted from the September 11th attacks was brought the forefront of the national consciousness. After years of relative inactivity in terms of terror attacks launched on American soil, the public's sense of complacency and calm was shattered by a seemingly random event. This pattern repeats that which was experienced by an entire generation during the 1950's and 1960's, when the Cold War against the Soviet Union positioned the planet on the precipice of nuclear war and global annihilation. During this especially tense era in America's history, the general public was held hostage by the posturing and provocation of the U.S.S.R. And its increasingly belligerent foreign policy maneuvers. Schoolchildren were taught to huddle under their desks during the now infamous "duck and cover" drills, homeowners constructed bomb shelters in the backyards, and entire families gathered around their televisions and radios to await the news that nuclear war had ignited.Even during periods of relative peace during the Cold War, occasional escalations such as the Bay of Pigs standoff heightened the collective state of fear experienced by the American public. Today, the specter of a Soviet missile launch has been replaced by the lingering doubts regarding the threat of a so-called "dirty bomb" attack, in which Al-Qaeda sympathizers manage to detonate a traditional explosive equipped with nuclear material. As a recent report by the New York Times stated of the similarities between the Cold War and today's ongoing War on Terror, "then, as now, investigators searched for agents they feared were in the United States awaiting orders to attack. Then, too, the government spent millions to install radiation detectors at airports and seaports despite doubts about their effectiveness" (Shane, 2010). While the ideological objectives of the enemy may have changed, the perpetual state of public fear that has been instilled remains the same.

2.) Write a 300- to 350-word paper in which you describe the Red Scare. Consider the role of the media….....