In the 1960s and 1970s, America underwent major cultural upheavals as political and social changes reshaped much of the American psyche.

Buoyed by their victories in World War II, both the United States and the USSR (today known as Russia) developed their economies, militaries, and culture in the 1950s. The United States, a capitalist republic, and the Soviet Union, a communist regime, targeted one another’s ideologies, and conflict ensued. The concern for each nation was the global influence of the other. The Cold War was essentially a war of power, in which both the Soviet Union and the United States wanted to be seen as the better, more powerful nation. The USSR expanded into Eastern Europe and inspired and funded communist regimes throughout Asia and South America, and the United States interfered with these smaller communist regimes whenever they could. Another cause of the Cold War was America’s continued development of atomic bombs, a weapon employed in World War II against Japan. At this time, the USSR also started developing nuclear weapons. The fears of a potential nuclear war with the Soviet Union consumed Americans. The Cold War lasted from 1945 to 1991, but tensions escalated in the 1960s as school children were taught nuclear bomb drills and many Americans were convinced that a nuclear bomb was imminent.