Similar to two children vying for their parent’s attention, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a battle of pride and wit. This battle of technological prowess began amidst the Cold War. Both sides fought to push the boundaries even further on space travel. The Soviet Union may of won the first part of the Space Race during the Cold War Era, but the United States quickly began building their space program using a methodical approach. The United States overtaking the Soviet Union was directly caused by the early portion of the space race, Project Gemini and Mercury buildings towards the Apollo 11 mission, and the manned mission to the moon.
Along with fears of the past came the difference of politics as the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR was a communist country and the United States was a capitalist society. These two nations became very dominant over each other and chose to start a nuclear arms race that would make both countries continue to fight in a form of competition. Unlike other countries, America made a decision to remain allies with the Soviet Union. This decision is one that haunted them for the next 46 years. David Halberstam, in “The Fifties” speaks strongly about the drastic changes that our society dealt with as a result of these hard times, and the ways in which the average individual worked with struggles in society.
While it is true that Earth has benefitted from past space exploration, it remains very important for the leaders of America to weigh the pros and cons of further exploration. They must take into consideration today’s economy and the fact that many people are much more concerned about their jobs here on Earth, rather than worrying about exploring other planets. American exploration of Mars began in the late 1990s, and since that time, the United States has sent eight different vehicles to the Red Planet (Kluger 24). All of this exploration has been very expensive for the American taxpayers. Recently, the idea of privatizing the business of sending cargo and astronauts into low-earth orbit has become a reality.
This began the history of the Space Race. In order to prove that they are Superior to Soviet Union, the United States worked to gain technology supremacy. To do so, the congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which heavily funded children who were seeking a higher education. However, Soviet Union kept launching successful space missions such as the Sputnik 2 mission and the launchings of the first man in space. The United States tried to out-do Soviet Union’s space missions by landing the very first man on the moon.
Russia had control over the Eastern part, and had placed a wall after a mass migration from East to West Germany occurred. USA intervened and wanted to help the non-communists of Germany. They aided financially and militarily. This also added to the conflicts (being one of the major between them), and added to the tension between them, nearly causing an actual war. The Cold war was one of the most tense wars, with many close calls.
Governments of countries for example often had to keep their peoples under control participating in the war and having mixed feelings/ opinions of the war. As front lines are filled with trenches interactions in this case refer to several things such as gunfire, bombing, and shouting of orders. These examples fall under the first category of Battles and are either physical or verbal. Throughout the war, diplomacy was an advantage to the allies. For example when faced with heavy casualties and problems at home, Russia withdrew from the war and instead the United States entered brining much needed support and troops to help win the war.
U.S. History Between 1950 through 1990 many important historical events occurred. The years succeeding WW II resulted in a tense military, political, and ideological rivalry between The United Sates and the Soviet Union who became the key players in the cold war. The Cold War involved democracy and capitalism in an attempt to vanish communism. Another major event that also took place during this time period is the Vietnam War. As if this weren’t enough, to make matters worse the civil rights movement intensified the standing of this time period.
He focuses on their relationship before and during World War II, the formation of the Grand Alliance, and the Cold War. Both countries faced distrust and ideological difference which made them collide with one another. The Cold War was inevitable because of the rivalry between the two nations and their determination for “manifest destinies to expand their political, cultural, economic, and influence”
The Cold War is discussed widely around the world and as huge impact on the fight between Republicans and Democrats about communism and anticommunism. When describing the events that occur with anticommunism and McCarthyism. When it comes to discussing anticommunism they think about people who are against a government that ruled by an authority party group. Anticommunism think that what communism wants are false and damaging to the governments. Senator McCarty believed that communism had influenced Americans in a negative way when
The Space Race between the United States of America and Soviet Union during the Cold War was not only a race between two “nuclear” countries, but much more a contest between two geniuses: Wernher von Braun and Sergey Korolyov. We have heard different opinions about the winner of this race, but thanks to the BBC’s documentary the big picture became a lot clearer for me, although there are still some questions for me- which one of two geniuses would be the winner of the race and how people suffered because of paying taxes that went directly to “nowhere” ? After World War II, it became obvious that the world will be divided in two: capitalistic and communistic countries. Both sides, especially communists, desperately needed to show the people in their countries that their society system is better than the other one. The first selection would have been war, but as both (U.S and Soviets) had nuclear weapons, the risk for a global disaster was too big.