I chose to interview my mom about her impressions of the Cold War. To summarize: She was pretty young (born in 1967) during the Cold War, and therefore had little impression of it. She did say that she believed Nixon's 1972 visit to China greatly helped ease relations between China and the US at the time, and helped pave the way for China to become what it is today. Because there was so much internal turmoil occuring in China as my mom was growing up, she said people of her age paid relatively little attention to the Cold War, preferring to turn their concentration on events such as the Tiananmen Square protests. One of her most vivid memories during that time was of my uncle- her younger brother by about 5 years. He was a college student at the time, and had gone to protest in the Square (although a few months before the famed "Massacre"), and she could remember worrying the entire day about him.
My mom's memories of the Cold War probably weren't helped by the fact that she emigrated to Canada around 1990.
The predominant tone of the conversation was one of detachment or confused sentimentality (if that makes sense).
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