The Cold War and Its Effects

Drew Mariani (0:00)

The issues that matter most, right here. The Drew Mariani Show.

Susan Hanssen (0:05)

On Relevant Radio.

Drew Mariani (0:15)

Good to be here with you today. As always, I love hanging out with you. If you missed any of the conversation, I know a lot of people were very interested in our conversation. We just had about the Halloween and some of the decorations, and although we are seeing there.

Go to the podcast, and you can listen to it again. If you missed any part of it, you can always download that and share it with somebody else that you think might need to go ahead and to get plugged in. All right? It's well worth re-listening to. If you're just tuning in right now, it's really great to have you with me this afternoon. We're continuing our series, Rediscovering America. We did this series called Countdown to 250, and you might have followed me right up to our 4th of July. But I decided to continue the idea where we can take a look at the people and the ideas and the moments that have shaped our nation from its earliest beginnings. And we've been talking to Dr. Susan Hansen from the University of Dallas. She's an associate professor of history there about everything from the founding of our republic to the principles that guided its leaders from the World Wars to the Cold War, right? And that's where we had to left off in our last conversation. And I know several people said to me, Drew, how can I listen to the whole series? We're working on that. I'm trying to, you know, I ran it up the flag pole here. I would like management to somehow get all of those Dr. Hansen, you know, rediscovering America conversations that I have, because it's a great history lesson from one of the bright minds in our country. So once I find out where you can access that, you can always go to the podcast, but I'd like to group them somehow so you can see them. It'd be great to listen to a whole series of these things, and you can learn your American history. Let's talk about what's going on right now, though. We're seeing all kinds of turmoil taking place in Europe, especially in France, but also in Spain and Italy, and Portugal. I talked a little bit about that yesterday. You know what else I saw? Let me add one more country to the mix, Albania. I mean, really, Albania. And for people of a certain age, that actually brings back some memories, but not very pleasant ones. Back in the 1960s, the 60s started out pretty much like the 50s, but then November 22nd, 1963 happened. You know that date. That's the date that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. And it seems like that decade went downhill from there. And Kennedy, of course, was dealing with the Cold War. That was left to him by Eisenhower. But people thought he was idealistic, that he could handle it maybe in a new way.

He actually turned out to be a lot more confrontational with Russia than the conventional wisdom presumed that he would be. And he allowed that disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, something that Eisenhower had planned to go forward in 1961 But he also had to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later.

His resolve that forced the Soviets to withdraw their nuclear-tipped missiles from Cuba, from the island, that island's only 90 miles off our coast, may have been what brought about his assassination a year later. A lot of theories about how he's assassinated. And all these documents, we still don't know a whole lot more, do we, after all those documents have been released. But as the decade move on, the country's involvement in Vietnam deepened, opposition to that grew, the civil rights movement was also becoming more prominent. And so while protestors were marching against the war, they were also mobilizing in Selma, Alabama, and other points of the deep south, to try to bring an end to these horrible Jim Crow laws. And on the mall in Washington, DC., where Martin Luther King Jr. gave a very famous speech, you know, I have a dream. And then came 1968

It was a year of absolute turmoil. You have King and Bobby Kennedy, both assassinated. Can you imagine livin in that decade? I mean, crazy.

We'll put a man on the moon, too. But race riots, you know, they broke out, and other riots broke out abroad, and the Democratic Convention in Chicago was reduced to violence. You ever see the video of that stuff? Socialists were helping to incite it all. So let's take a look at this era. What was it about the 1960s that started with such hope, the election of a young Catholic president, ended up in such turmoil? I'm joined by Dr. Susan Hanssen now, and it's great to have her with us. Doctor, good afternoon.