The cold war was a long period of time with many big events.

Some of these events I

didn’t even know about and after conducting interviews with my grandpa and grandma, I learned

a lot more. I first chose my grandpa to interview because he was a kid when the cold war

started so he could give me an insight on what it was like for younger people, like me. He also

experienced the whole war, so he went through everything from the space race, to the Cuban

Missile crisis and much more. I also wanted to interview my grandma because she also

experienced a lot of the cold war, and she was a kid when the cold war started so she would

have a different perspective then my grandpa.

When I called my grandpa and asked if he would answer my questions about the cold

war, he had no shortage of answers. My grandpa had experienced the whole Cold War and he

still remembers a lot of it. My grandpa was in the army during part of the Cold war and even

though he wasn’t deployed, he remembers a lot of things that happened as a result of the

soviets and communism. One thing that stood out to me was that he was extended for an

additional 18 months in the Army as a result of the Berlin Wall going up and people no longer

being able to cross. This was very interesting to me because they had him and many others

extended for a matter across the ocean when he wasn’t even deployed. This shows that the

government thought that actual conflict was close and that they would need more troops to fight.

I didn’t know we were this close to conflict with the soviets who in this case where occupying

germany. My grandpa was also in the army during the Cuban missile crisis, and the soldiers had

to stay at the post for most of the crisis. He had heard rumors that they were going to send them

to Cuba to fight, and this was scary for him. My grandpa also kept mentioning the iron curtain,

and I was curious what that was so I asked him about it. He said that it was a figure of speech

for the border between and the rest of europe. He said that Winston Churchill’s speech at a

college in missouri was the first reference to the iron curtain and he thinks that that was the start

of the cold War. Another thing that my Grandpa remembers that stood out to me where

anti-radiation pills that the army had and ay grandma had also mentioned these at certain

places in her town. My grandpa said that these only worked against a certain type of radiation

and that him and his friends in the army would joke about how the pills wouldn’t stop the
radiation and how the government made these to make people feel more safe. This shows that

everyone was feeling unsafe about the arms race and the government did things to make

people feel like we were safe and we were more advanced than them. One very interesting

story that my grandpa had to tell me was that when he was a pilot for TWA airlines, he had flew

to Berlin right when the wall had fell. He said that the soviet troops were in the streets, selling

their uniforms, hats, and other stuff. This made me think that this was the end of the war, since

the soldiers had given up. The last thing my grandpa said that stood out ot me was that his

friend had escaped from the communist side to the safe side, before coming to the US. My

grandpa said that his friends father had to stay behind while the two brothers and mom

escaped. This intrigued me because I didn’t really know that people weren't allowed to leave.

This shows how cruel the soviets where in some parts, and how the cold war impacted people a

lot more than just being scared of atomic bombs. My grandpa taught me how impactful the cold

war was on people all across the world, and how the government would try to assure citizens

they were safe. It was a scary time for him and the other soldiers in the Army because they

could have been shipped out to Cuba to fight.

My grandma had a very different experience during the civil war, because she was only

a little kid when the cold war started. When I asked her what she remembered most about the

cold war and why, she talked about the fallout shelters. She didn’t have a basement which

means that her parents could not build a fallout shelter. She said this scared her a lot because if

an atomic bomb was dropped she wouldn’t have as good of a chance. She said that her and her

sister would beg their parents to build a fallout shelter. Her parents didn’t think it was necessary

and they made her live in fear of being vulnerable during an attack. This shows what it was like

to be a kid during the cold war. I wouldn’t want to have to live in fear of being nuked every day

with nothing I could do about it. The arms race had a big impact on my grandma and also on

people across the world. People were living in fear that they could be nuked at any time and

they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. My Grandma also mentioned the commercials and

videos that played on tv and in school. My grandma said that those got her and her friends more

scared because they knew that the threat was real and they could be in real danger. I asked if
she remembered “Duck and Cover”, and she said that they had seen the video in school and

practiced that often. She added on about the air raid drills and said that the post office, school,

and a few other places in her town had the fallout shelter signs outside of the building. This

shows how evident the threat of the nukes was, and how much precaution the government had

taken. This was no joke and the government did a good job of preparing for an attack. She had

also mentioned the anti radiation pills that my grandpa had mentioned before, and how they had

them in the town in case of an attack. These were things I didn’t know existed, and I also didn’t

know how prepared the government was for attacks. I also asked my grandma about the space

race, and what that was like for her. She first talked about the Sputnik crisis, and how that made

the Soviets seem more advanced than the US. My grandma said that everyone thought that we

were behind the Soviets when Sputnik 1 was launched. She said it made people scared that

Russia could attack us from space, and it put a lot of anxiety into the people around her. I then

asked about when we got the first man to the moon, and how much nationalism was showed

after it. My grandparents had been watching it on live tv, and they had also went to the parade

the next day. She said that everyone was so happy and proud of our country. She said that after

that she was never as scared as she was before. She said that the streets were filled with joy

and pride, and there was red, white, and blue all around. She said that everyone around her

was also not as scared about the soviets anymore because we had showed everyone we have

just as good if not better technology. After talking to my grandma about all of these events, I

have learned so much about how scary it was to be in the US during the cold war, and how

prepared the government was for attacks. This makes me believe that we were very close to

actual direct conflict with the Soviets, but luckily that didn’t happen directly. My grandma also

showed me one of the turning points, when we landed on the moon. All the pride and

nationalism expressed showed how it was one of the turning points and it gave Americans

hope.

After talking to my grandpa and grandma, I have learned a lot about what it was like to

experience the Cold War. My grandparents had been through it all and i’m sure there is plenty

of other stories that I didn’t here. The cold war was a very scary time for Americans but it was
also filled with pride and nationalism. Everyone was living in fear of the soviets, and we came

very close to directly fighting them. The cold war affected everyone, like my grandpa in the

army, his friend who lived in the communist party of Germany, and my grandma who was just a

civilian.