For both the United States and the Soviet Union, there were harrowing effects on domestic policy and politics. Anti-communism gave birth to McCarthyism in the U.S., which launched political witch hunts and put a damper on civil liberties. Similarly, this was an era of gigantic military budgets and an Overpowering military-industrial complex. Domestic policies had to compete with the USSR by investing in education, science, and technology.

In the Soviet Union, Cold War issues underpinned authoritarian control. The regime clothed its repression and limitation of personal freedoms in the rhetoric of fighting Western influence. The massive allocations to the military and technological development to face the challenge from the West resulted in a lack of consumer goods directly affecting the quality of life for citizens.

With a view to national identity, ideology burrowed deep into the flesh of capitalism and communism in both countries. It then entered political rhetoric: both parties demonized each other’s systems. The fear of nuclear war penetrated both societies, influencing public opinion and, ultimately, policy decisions.

It configured social movements like in United States, civil rights activists were accused of communist sympathies, while in the Soviet Union, the dissident movements were suppressed as possible Western collaborators.