Life During the Cold War

Considering the Cold War was such a recent event in history, I am always interested in peoples first hand experiences because listening to someone talk about their lives is more relatable than reading about it. My dad had lived through a vast majority of the Cold War. I was interested on how it affected him as a child growing up in Australia, when the Cold War was mainly between the US and USSR. After hearing him explain, life in Australia seemed very similar to the ones in the US. He explained to me that before he was born, there was a fear of communism overtaking Australia which led to the SEATO and ANZUS treaty because they feared the communist party. There was later an attempt to ban the communist party from Australia. I found it interesting that both the US and Australia were trying to keep communism out and contain it. There was also the Petrov Affair which was an incident between Australia and the USSR. It was a spy incident that made the USSR very mad so they closed their embassy in Australia for 5 years. I feel like this is very similar to the Berlin Air Blockade where the USSR cut off west berlin from supplies because they were upset with the Americans. Also, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was very young but has memories of being taught to hide under his desks or tables in case of an attack. I remember from a documentary we watched in class, the US was taught the same things even though they knew it wouldn't do much. He later moved to the US and once the wall fell, he said there was a great sense of relief to finally have this thing come to an end. I never really realized how other countries were affected by the Cold War because in class we only learned about the relationships between the USSR and the US. But I find it very interesting that the USSR also had issues with their relationships with Australia and other countries as well and decided to share.