Although our nation is young compared to other countries in the world, we have seen our fair share of conflict and battles. From the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, and even the war to end all wars, World War II, our country proved time and time again, that if you attack us, we will come out swinging. What has also been unchanged, is that if the reason for war is blurred and it is unclear who our enemy is, the American people are reluctant to take the word of their political leaders and rush into a conflict. Through this essay, I will present arguments for the American people’s reluctance to enter the Cold War arms race against the Soviet Union and the war on terrorism post September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. It was in the late 1940s when the Soviet Union was developing itself …show more content…
At the time, communism was spreading fast. With Russia taking over North Korea, the United States had to act fast. When hearing the news, president Truman had the Defense Department and other government agencies create a set of instruction to protect the U.S. from the spread of communism, the NSC-68. The NSC-68 consisted of tactics and defense strategies like building nuclear arsenals, however the next election was around the corner and the passing the NSC-68 would be political suicide. To build the nuclear weapons that the NSC-68 mentions would mean taxes would have to be raised, however we just finished World War II so we were not ready for something that could fiddle with our economy. However, when Russia was trying to take over South Korea, it was time for the U.S. to take action and enter the Korean war, which forced America to pass the NSC-68. The Patriot Act is correspondent to the rejection of the NSC-68 because the citizens of the U.S. thought that it was going to take away their rights to privacy. Before the Patriot