Cold war liberalism

Cold War liberal is a term that was used most commonly in the United States during the Cold War, which began at the end of World War II. The term was used to describe liberal politicians and labor union leaders who supported democracy and equality. They supported the growth of labor unions, the civil rights movement, and the War on Poverty, while simultaneously opposing totalitarianism and Communist Party rule. Cold-War liberals therefore supported efforts to contain Soviet communism.

The History of liberalism is the belief in freedom and equal rights generally associated with such thinkers as John Locke and Montesquieu. John Locke’s phrase “life, liberty, and property” is the base of this belief. After the French Revolution overthrew hereditary aristocracy it was the first state in history to implement a document of liberalism and human rights, which was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which was first codified in 1789. Technically, however, the United States of America is the first country to be considered founded without hereditary which implies a liberal nation. This is because its Declaration of Independence states that “All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” which stems from John Locke’s statement. This first storm of Liberalism took off which further promoted social activism and civil disobedience within the United States along with other countries.

Before the Cold War and modern liberalism, the foundations of these ideologies were formed through classical liberalism. This form of liberalism was set and made credible via abolitionist and Suffrage movements which took off in the 19th century. Slowly democratic ideals were spreading causing solidarity within the individuals who believed in these ideas. Liberals after the American Revolution wanted to develop a world free from governmental intervention. They believed in negative liberty which constitutes the absence of external constraints. They wanted government to stay out of the lives of individuals. Classical liberalism pushed to expand civil rights, free markets, and free trade as a product of the Industrial Revolution. Liberals saw the 19th century as a portal to accomplishing the promises of the Declaration of Independence.

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