How did the cold war being fought around the world impact the American society here in home?

How did the cold war being fought around the world impact the American society here in home?|||In addition to Paul's answer, fear of Communism dominated the agenda of US politics for a long time. McCarthy got powerful by denouncing a lot of people for being Communists. Reds under the bed was the official ethos of paranoia over Communism. Even now, its bad to be accused a Communist in US, and its also a very serious accusation, especially in politics.





The Domino Theory was the US government's predictions in the spread of Communism. They believed that one country after another would fall to Communist revolutions until the US itself would fall. Therefore, they fought wars to stop this from happening, notably in Korea and Vietnam. The theory proved false however, Communism didn't spread everywhere.





There was also the fear at that time that there would be a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, since both sides possessed huge arsenals (way over today's) and used them quite threatening (see Cuba missile crisis.)





In addition, US popular culture also responded to the Cold War situation and developed innovative new types of music, fashion, ect in response to the environment.|||Probably the biggest impact was the growth of government. Conservatives went from a party opposing the growth of government, especially an interventionist foreign policy, into one embracing the growth of the military/industrial/congressional complex. Liberals went from being a party that embraced freedom to one that saw the government as a solution to all our problems. Along with the expansion of government in the areas of foreign influence, and militarism was a growth of the government at home too, in the form of the expansion of the welfare state. these expansions greatly hampered the American economy, and we went from being the world's leading creditor to being its leading debtor. Our industrial base was compromised as well and the expansion of government played a large role in that. While we retain our position as the world's largest manufacturer, we are rapidly losing that status to our biggest creditors; China primarily as well as India and Japan.