Analysis Of Seven Days In May

America was once described as baseball and apple pie. The Cold War forced Americans to choose the status quo of traditional American life or to face a new modernized age. The United States being a superpower in the Cold War locked horns with the very powerful Soviet Union over which form of economic and political system was best. The struggle for power in both countries was fought with espionage, nuclear deterrent, propaganda and a space race. The Cold War had formed a new frontier of changes, challenges and issues. U.S. society had been divided. Americans were having to choose simple small town traditional values or futuristic, innovative advances and cultural changes. In the book, 1959: The Year Everything Changed, Norman Mailer quoted, …show more content…
The U.S. did not trust the Russians. The Soviets would not live up to their end of the treaty and thus leave the U.S unprotected. This can be seen in the movie, Seven Days in May. The president signs a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, which is unpopular with the American Citizens. A Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff plots to become president through conspiracy. Even a U.S. Senator is kidnapped and held captive. Although Seven Days in May is only a movie, it represents how low U.S. and Soviet relations have become during this period. It is because of these fears of communism after the U-2 downing, that cultural changes were happening within the U.S causing a division. The Cold War had an impact on all aspects of culture, including innovations in music, comedy, and literature. The division within the U.S. society had forced Americans to choose between new dramatic cultural arts or the old traditional cultural arts. Americans were breaking new cultural barriers in music, comedy, and literature by addressing forbidden topics such as drugs, sex, homosexuality, religion, and profanity. Fred Kaplan documented these changes in cultural arts during this period of the Cold War in 1959: The Year Everything