On the Origins of the Cold War
When examining the causes behind the onset of the Cold War, several themes become evident in terms of the considerations of the two major parties of the conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States was increasingly enamored with anti-Communist sentiments, a fact particularly evident when looking at the campaigns of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his counterparts on the House Un-American Activities Committee. However, such sentiments were not new for the United States. Fear of Communism and socialism in general dated back decades to the early 20th century. These fears initially peaked with the response to the Bolshevik takeover in Russia following the First World War. The United States, along with other Western powers, attempted to intervene militarily in the conflict by supporting the anti-Bolshevik “White Russians”. This foreign intervention was accompanied by a campaign on the homefront orchestrated by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. The McCarthy of his day, Palmer launched his infamous “Palmer Raids”, targeting actual and suspected Communists and anarchists. Anti-Communist crusades of this time were epitomized by the imprisonment of noted American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs during the First World War, as well as the ideologically charged Sacco & Vanzetti trial.