How Did Truman, McCarthy, and Kennedy Try to Get the Americanвђ™s Attention About the War?

How did Truman, McCarthy, and Kennedy try to get the American’s attention about the war?

“The Cold War forms the organizing principle for the period after World War II. On one level, the rival between the United States and the Soviet Union-or between West and East, capitalism and communism- was quite real” (From the Historical Context in Gorn, 219). During this time, there were three speeches given by Truman, McCarthy, and Kennedy that got the American’s attention about the war.

First of all, President Harry Truman addressed Congress by stating that the U.S. should give a defense aid package to the governments of Greece and Turkey. According to the one of the congressman, he said he would have to “scare the hell out of the American people” (From The Truman Doctrine March 12, 1947 in Gorn, 224). Truman does this by instilling a fear of communism in congress and the American people. Truman reasoned that because these “totalitarian regimes” are intimidating the “free people,” they represent a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. The “totalitarian regimes” represents the communist and the “free people” are capitalists. He also says if there was failure communism would take over (From The Truman Doctrine March 12, 1947 in Gorn, 225). This got the attention of the American people and congress in which the Truman Doctrine was passed.

Second, Senator Joseph McCarthy gave a speech for Lincoln’s Birthday and then quickly turned his theme. In this speech, he “spoke a language of crisis.” “When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without, but rather because of enemies within” (From the Speech in Wheeling in Gorn, 227). He started accusing people within the State Department and its Secretary that they were communists. This got the attention of the Americans and put fear into the people, but the many people responded in strong words. Allan Ginsberg, famous poet, said, “Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb,” (From Document 4 in Gorn, 228).

Similar to McCarthy, there was a House Committee on UnAmerican