During the 1950s-60s, the US was at the peak of economic development. As the war was over, families got better life prospects and job opportunities. Baby boom followed as a natural consequence. Between 1946 and 1964, 76 million of babies were born. Today this figure still makes up 40% of the American population with all the immigrants of the same age.

Baby boomers changed the American society in many ways. First, they created the mass consumer demand for certain goods and services (toys, education etc). Second, baby boomers created a huge community that set cultural and social trends. Mass support of the Civil Rights Movement, protests against the Vietnam War, hippies, and feminism movement all took place because of the baby boomers.

As World War II was over, the US entered the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The nations that once fought as the allies came to the point where they had nothing but fear before each other. Stalin’s “red” tyranny posed concerns to all Europe, not only the US. The Soviet Union was particularly cautious about the US capitalism and nuclear weapons that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For a long time, the US stuck to the policy of containment. They supported peoples who suffered from the USSR imperialism and were ready to apply force to stop communist from further expansion. The countries also started competing in practically everything. In 1949, the Soviet Union tested its own nuclear bomb, and in 1957, the country launched Sputnik to the Earth’s orbit. The US was submerged in the Red Scare, that escalated conflicts between citizens and the federal government.

The massive US atomic initiative, the Manhattan Project, developed as a response to German scientists creating a nuclear weapon in the 1930s. Before World War II has stricken the international community, a threat of nuclear conflict was already there. Besides Germany, the Soviet Union also evoke major concerns in the US officials. That is why developing a strong nuclear weapon seemed to guarantee safety to America.

In 1939, President Roosevelt declared the agencies that would work on the Manhattan Project. Testing of nuclear reactions was conducted in the remote areas of New Mexico, Tennessee, and Washington. In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the president declared war immediately. At this time, scientists actively worked on developing nuclear weapons. In 1943, bombs were already built and tested at Los Alamos Laboratory, New Mexico. The Manhattan Project finished with the US nuclear attack on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These events pushed Japan to surrender.