ropaganda that acts as the setting and backdrop for The Manchurian Candidate.
Both the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis are examples of how much fear, paranoia, and propaganda created intense rivalry and suspicion between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The U.S. was worried if communism spread in Europe and other regions of the globe, U.S. interests would become jeopardized, while, of course, the Russians viewed the spread of democracy in a similar manner. Fear, suspicion, communist witch-hunting and paranoia were the watchwords of the day in the 1950s and 1960s. Anyone remotely dissenting to American ideology was immediately suspect as a communist sympathizer or outright commie – to use the ling of the era. In fact, ideological differences separated the two nations as much as geography and system of government “The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs. There were real wars, sometimes called ‘proxy wars’ because they were fought by Soviet allies rather than the USSR itself-along with competition for influence in the Third World, and a major superpower arms race” (Cold War 1).
During the 1950s, this fear, paranoia, and propaganda reached a climax as, under the instigation and auspices of Senator Joseph McCarthy the House Un-American Activities Committee began holding hearings into whether or not suspected persons were, in fact, communists or communist sympathizers. Friends ratted on friends, fear and paranoia ruled the day, and the evangelical and politically self-serving nature of Senator McCarthy was responsible for people losing their careers, blacklisting, and a host of other consequences due to their admission of communist sentiment. There were valid reasons for fear of communist threat, like the Korean War. Movement in Korea by communist an...