Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
McCarthyism, Korea and the Cold War
After World War II, foreign affairs played an increasingly important role in the lives of American citizens. The United States and its allies competed with the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its allies for political and economic dominance around the world. Known as the Cold War, this rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union shaped almost every aspect of international politics, as well as many domestic concerns, until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR in the early 1990s.
In the late 1940s, people in Wisconsin were divided over issues such... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | McCarthy seeks support against "communist mouthpieces" |
| An anti-McCarthy political flyer from the 1952 campaign |
| Judge Joe McCarthy runs for Senate in 1946 |
| The Progressive Magazine takes on Senator McCarthy in 1954 |
| McCarthy is discredited on nationwide television |
| Sen. William Proxmire Opposes the Military-Industrial Complex |
 | Hope and fear in an atomic age |
| A Racine family equips their fallout shelter in 1960 |
| A patch from a historic meeting in space, 1975 |
 | Two Korean War veterans describe their experiences |
 | Photographs from the career of William Proxmire |
 | Sen. William Proxmire's Campaign Against Genocide |
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