Joe McCartney, the Hydrogen Bomb, and Ten Fateful Months That Kicked Off the Cold War

There’s a good argument to be made that the entire trajectory of the Cold War was set off by ten fateful months of American and global history, between the first Soviet atom bomb test in the late summer of 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. The following events then all occurred in rapid succession: the dawning of the Taiwan question, the rise of Senator Joe McCarthy, the birth of NATO, the hydrogen bomb, and the origins of the European Union.

To look at these fateful months is today’s guest, Nick Bunker, author of “In the Shadow of Fear.” At the time, Sir Winston Churchill described the United States as “this gigantic capitalist organization, with its vast and superabundant productive power – millions of people animated by the profit motive.” The dollar reigned supreme, and Harry S. Truman and his Democratic allies in Congress hoped to use the country’s economic might to build on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s achievements with a bold new program of liberal reforms.

However, in the autumn of 1949 and the first half of 1950, Truman and his party were overtaken by the unforeseen. While Mao Zedong’s army swept through China, in America the age of FDR gave way to the beginnings of a new conservatism. An aggressive Republican Party, desperate for power, seized on rifts among its opponents, and Truman’s programs went down to defeat. As he launched his first anti-communist campaign, the young Joe McCarthy ambushed Truman with a style of politics that polarized the country. Leaders and citizens were compelled to improvise as events spun out of control.