- Were scared at any point that there would be nuclear war breaking out?
The widespread feeling of fear of nuclear war was at its peak during the Cuban Missile Crisis, everyone felt that due to the close proximity of the missile sites in Cuba it just escalated the whole situation and nearly brought on nuclear war between the USA and the Soviet Union. However in contrast, I felt very proud of President Kennedy’s hard line attitude towards the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis because I believed that we should retaliate if they refuse to back down.
- What was your view of superpower relations?
The perception of the relations between the USA and the USSR was also propagandistic, although we may have considered such things to have been patriotic during the Cold War, in retrospect it was really propaganda that promoted and encouraged this type of hostile attitude of ‘USA vs USSR’.
- What did you think about the space race?
The space race in particular instilled fear and suspicion into us since we were told that Russian superiority in space technology, by launching the first satellite and having the first man in space, would lead to our eventual destruction as they would’ve had the upper hand. The media reported these concerns over the launch of Sputnik and the public did not understand how the USA was unable to achieve this while the Soviet Union was able to.
- What was school like?
Our school, from time to time, would conduct air raid drills where we would have to get into bunkers to protect ourselves from nuclear fallout if nuclear war were to ever occur. Many major buildings also had fallouts shelters with instructions on how to get to them and how many people they could hold. However eventually, concerning the fallout shelters, most people didn’t take them too seriously since there never was an actual incident of nuclear attacks on the USA. However in contrast, I felt very proud of President Kennedy’s hard line attitude towards the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis because I believed that we should retaliate if they refuse to back down.
- Did you think that USA was a powerful country?
I didn’t feel any fear whatsoever as I was confident that the United States was the superior superpower of the two. However, we were concerned about the potential threat of nuclear war and constructed bomb shelters due to the uncertainty of the situation.
- What was the significance was of the collapse of the Berlin Wall?
The Berlin Wall’s collapse was a symbol to the United States that the Cold War was over.
