The SR-71 Blackbird

In 1946, George Kennan sent a “long telegram to the Us State department depicting the Soviets as driven to expand Communism. The following month, Churchill gave his “Iron Curtain” speech, further instilling fears of the spread of Communism (632). Throughout 1946 and 1947 the Soviets backed multiple Communist takeovers in Europe, justifying American concerns of Soviet militance (632). President Truman issued the Truman Doctrine to assure free nations economic support to resist Communist attacks. Shortly after, the Marshall plan was signed to further instill US economic aid in Europe, expanding US influence. In order to oppose the strong American moves, the Soviets cut off all traffic into Berlin. The allies responded by airlifting supplies to help those in need within the blockade (633). As tensions rose with the Berlin Blockade, the US enacted the National Security Act which created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council. Along with other legislation, the NSA contributed to a large push for defense of democracy (633). The US, along with Canada and ten other European Nations, signed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 to create a strong alliance of democratic nations. The

An “iron curtain” of Communism spread over Eastern Europe as the post-World War II world tried to re-build Germany and Easter Europe. As the dictator Joseph Stalin sealed off the Eastern Bloc, the rest of Europe began to re-build under a democratic rule. This re-building continued and the USSR continued to keep their “totalitarian” hold on the East. As the Cold War continued the battle that was being fought soon became the battle between the two world super powers. This led to many conflicts and continued up until finally in 1989 the Berlin Wall was taken down reuniting Western and Eastern Germany and bringing down the “iron curtain“ that shaded the East from freedom.

The Soviet’s growing power was finally addressed in 1946 by former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. His “Iron Curtain” speech warned Americans about the danger of Soviet expansion, causing all citizens to truly realize that Russia was a major threat. It was now clear that America had to assist any country that was threatened by Soviet Communism. In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was established to do just this. Substantial funds were used for the soul purpose of preventing the expansion of communism, which was further utilized in 1948 to assist Turkey and Greece in this fight. This has been said to be the beginning of the Cold War.

In the Second World War USA and its western allies like Britain, France and so forth needed the help of Soviet Union to combat Nazi Germany. “Indeed, the western democracies could not have defeated Germany except the unlimited support of those Soviet troops which in 1945 occupied all areas in dispute.”(Graebner, 1976) However, after the war, the Soviet-American unity collapsed following the Yalta Conference of February 1945, largely over the issue of Poland. As a result, USSR established what Churchill termed as ‘iron curtain’ from Stettin to Trieste.

It was also during this time that former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech. The issue addressed in the speech given by Churchill tells of how the communist threat, or “curtain”, was soon to cover and take over Europe if the looming communist ideas were not halted (Doc 1). After Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947 delivered a speech to Congress in which he explained the Domino Effect theory that he believed was going to take place in Europe, and the rest of the world, if the communists were not stopped. The way that Truman decided appropriate to tackle the issue of communist expansion was by adopting the idea of the containment policy, which was made by a Soviet specialist and friend of Truman, George Kennan (Doc 2). The policy was discussed in the speech Truman delivered to Congress, and was hoped that if effective, the spread of communism would be ended, since the Soviet expansion would be stopped. The speech given by Churchill, and the response of it by the United States government, added more tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, which deepened the fight in the cold

Following World War II, the spread of communism was an ever-growing threat that pulled countries behind “the iron curtain”, as many world leaders stated. Although the war had ended in 1945, tensions between the East and the West remained intact as the Soviet Union’s presence and possession of nuclear weapons continued to grow. Throughout America, the fear of nuclear war swept across households; concurrently, nationalist and Christian sentiments fueled the desire to not only keep communism out of America, but to keep other countries from falling to it as well. However, hysteria grew immensely in size not just because of the fear that communists would take over, but also because of the fear that the communists had already infiltrated the system.

1947 through 1991 was the time period of the Cold War; the Cold War was a result caused by the tension of the after math of what had happened with world war 2 .The tension that was there wasn 't just any kind of tension it was military tension between the power of the eastern bloc and the power of the western bloc. The Cold War wasn 't only one war but it was decades of "little"wars and intimidation. Germany was busy after the war, there where so much tension between the Soviet Union and the western allies because they had feared each other because they had thought a new war could arise. Minister Churchill then decided that he would put what would be an iron curtain across Europe. The Cold War had so many little conflicts within it like the Chinese revolution, the Palestine liberation organisation, and so many more hundreds if you would that happened in the Cold War time.

The United States response began as a total cover-up and progressed through many versions of the facts. After the plane was shot down, the United States’ first announcement was that an “unarmed weather research plane based at Adana, Turkey, and piloted by a civilian American” was missing. First the government stated that the pilot was a civilian employee of the Lockheed corporation flying a U-2 plane chartered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On May 7 the State Department announced that the plane was an unarmed civilian U-2 collecting intelligence and blamed the Soviet Union’s “excessive secrecy” for our need to spy on them. In a news conference statement by President Eisenhower on May 11, he lists four points: (1) intelligence-gathering activities are needed; (2) intelligence

Within the center of this division lay Berlin. Russia’s communist intentions were becoming clearer to western powers. Stalin had no plans to back down from further conflict. In 1946, Churchill delivered the “Iron Curtain” speech, symbolizing future relations with the communist powers. In 1947, U.S. president Truman established his famous doctrine of containment policy, which outlined in vague terms the west’s distain and containment intentions of further communist expansion by Russia. In 1948, Americans witnessed the pressurized showdown in Berlin between western forces and Russian occupiers, which eventually led to the division of Germany, and the construction of the Berlin Wall. Once, the Russians began developing and testing nuclear weapons, and the subsequent development of space flight, Americans placed their lives in the hands of their government to handle this new, Cold War.

When the war started they used hot air balloons for reconnaissance which got shot down. Then the allies decide to start using plane for reconnaissance

The wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union proved a little more than a marriage of convenience. They both shared a goal of defeating the “Axis” also known as Nazi Germany. They had forced these two nations, a capitalist country and a communist country, to cooperate with each other and although this produced victory it didn’t last much longer than the celebrated win.

This fight against oppression was also seen from the Cold War, where the U.S and the U.S.S.R after World War I, had both become the superpowers of the world. As they grew and as each other began to repair themselves and other countries, both countries began to worry about a possible attack from the other. After World War I the Russians feared Germany coming against them and taking them over, so they created a sphere of influence in the countries bordering them and Germany. The Soviets built the Berlin wall to maintain influence and eventually this gave way to the hypothetical iron curtain. Winston Churchill stated “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” The curtain, when found out by the U.S was seen as a threat to their powers, so Truman doctrine and the Marshal plan were created. The Truman doctrine would lead to the eventual military build between the U.S and

In 1968, the Soviet Union came up with a new development- the building of antiballistic missiles defence systems. These were to be used for nuclear, chemical, biological or even conventional warheads in the homeland defence of such a strike because they were designed to counter ICBM’s. As a method to counter this development, United States came up with multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRV’s) which improved the chances of avoiding detection by ABM systems. In addition to this, United States also developed its own IBM in order to match that of Soviet Union.

Towards the end of the War the airplane becomes a practical device of war being able to carry weapons. Anthony Fokker and Louis Bleriot create the most successful of early modern biplanes known as the D-VII and D-VIII. Biplanes are eventually taken over by the monoplane, or one wing. This new design allowed for faster flight and better visibility for the pilot. Air-cooled engines lead the way for commercial aircraft, and Boeing introduces the first modern airliner the 247. Airplanes are effected the greatest by supply and demand of war. New styles of war begun to emerge so did new and improved types of aircraft. The population of the U.S. also begun to grow which leads to the modern most sophisticated commercial airliner the 777. Most aircraft improvements are found in the military and intelligence field. The most high tech aircraft known today for such things as spying are the SR-71 Blackbird, and the U-2 Spy plane. The most complicated and best aircraft performance is still held by the space shuttle and probably always will be. The last 200 years have seen incredible changes in aircraft from the man with wings to heavier than air flying machines that can travel at supersonic speeds.

By 1945 nearly all of Eastern Europe including Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary was under Soviet control. In Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946 the British prime minister Winston Churchill gave his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent..."[1] This meant that Europe was divided into two: a Soviet controlled East, and a 'free West'. Churchill wanted and Anglo-American alliance but American President Harry S Truman did not support this as he and most Americans hoped that America and Russia would still co-operate as they had during the war. Churchill's speech