The Space Race: The Start Of The Cold War

A Cold War is when there is a large amount of tension built up between two countries but no fighting occurs. The Cold War between U.S. and Russia started in 1947 and ended in 1991. It started over a race to build a bigger and better atomic bomb. Although the U.S. working class was able to live comfortably again, the Cold War affected the United States by increasing people’s fears of Communist spies, of nuclear war, and of losing to the Soviet Union.

The Cold War was a state of political hostility, lasting from 1946 to 1991, between Communists Soviet Union and Capitalist Western powers. Two generations worth of tension was filled with propaganda, hot wars, threat of nuclear attacks, and developments in missiles and space technology. Domestic policy and American society changed in the years of the Cold War: more money was being allotted to the defense budget, committees were being created to root out any communists working in Hollywood or the government and Americans were living their life around the fact that they could enter into a nuclear war at any moment.

This investigation will explore the question: How did the Space Race impact the Cold War? The years 1957 to 1969 will be the focus of the investigation, to analyze the Space Race during the Cold War, as well as how the USSR and NASA both reacted to it.

During the Cold War, the United States and Russia had a severe space race between one another. Every time one country would be a step ahead of the other, and somehow one of the countries would catch up to the more advanced country at the time. During the early years of the space race, success was measured by what nation did what first: To the alarm of the United States, each of the early adventures were achieved by the Soviet Union. And all of those events triggered the United States to drive and catch up with to surpass the Soviet Union. This sort of see-saw method happen throughout the space race. Throughout this paper, there will be a discussion on the space race between the United Stated and

Barely even half a decade after World War II, the world would again enter a war of a different nature where tensions between United States and Soviet Union would continue to rise as both sides threatened to use weaponry that if used would evidently lead to mutual and total destruction. Known as the Cold War, these two nations with their respective alliances, NATO and Warsaw Pact, would be in constant political conflict caused by their clashing ideologies and beliefs. In what would later be known as the Space Race, to stay ahead of the other in technological advancements these two nations would compete against each other in the exploration of the world beyond earth,serving as a showcase of more advanced rocket technology that could be applied

In 1961, the United States of America was embroiled in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This confrontation was taking place not only on land, sea and air, but in space as well. On May 25th, 1961 recently elected US President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress, during which he outlined his now famous Man on the Moon challenge. It was through this ambitious dream that the creation of the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) came about, which President Kennedy challenged to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Although he didn't live to see the achievement of his dreams, the United States successfully landed Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on the moon on July 20, 1969 and

The United States was beginning to realize that the Soviet Union was overtaking them in technological advancements with the launch of Sputnik I. Our president at the time, Kennedy, made the decision to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy consulted the head of the National Space Council and found out our weaknesses. He delivered a speech to Congress and said that we need to take the lead in the space race. He also announced that this mission will be the most impressive, but most expensive of that time period.

I argue one of the most significant outcomes of post WWII era was the Space Race during the 1950’s of The Cold War. The outcome of the Space Race saw advancements in technology that allowed humans to reach the outer depths of the universe. This is a major contribution to the 21st century; however, I assert that one of the most fundamental and perhaps ignored redefining impact of the Space Race was that it improved the educational system and put more emphasis on learning and research in all disciplines.

When John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1961, it was believed that the United States was losing in the Space Race against the Soviet Union, who had successfully launched the first satellite Sputnik, about four years prior. Convinced of the need to achieve what would cement America’s space authority, Kennedy, after consulting NASA through Vice President Lyndon B Johnson, stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and suggested that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” His speech can be broken up into four main parts, each having an essential role in the construction of his message.

The conflict involving the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), known as the Cold War, was a long standing conflict between the ideologies of capitalism/democracy and communism/autocracy. This war gets it’s name from the fact that no open warfare between the USA and The USSR ever occurred, rather the war was fought mostly with propaganda and implied or blatant threats. During the period known as the Cold War (circa 1945-1990), the USA participated and aided the capitalist/democratic side of two Asian wars. The decision to send forces and aid to South Korea and South Vietnam resulted in large amounts of American casualties. After having success early in the Cold War, the United States developed a

The Cold War was political hostility between the United States of America and the Soviet Union through threats, propaganda and series of warfare incidents that made these superpowers of the time suspicious of one another. With the sources of the reader I will explain who’s to be at fault for the Cold war, the United States or the Soviet Union. The term “Cold War” according to Heonik Kwon in his document origins of the Cold War “… refers to the prevailing condition of the world in the second half of the twentieth century, divide into two separate paths of political modernity and economic development.”(Kwon 1002) The Cold War happened after World War II primarily between the USA and Soviet Union. The main reason that the Cold War occurred was the different beliefs and ideologies that both countries upheld. The US had capitalistic views compared to the Soviet Union, which had a communistic output. Religion could also be seen as a reason that fueled the Cold War because at the time the superpowers looked for opportunities to expand anywhere in the world, especially the United States of America. During World War II the US and the Soviet Union were allies only because they had a mutual enemy-the Nazis. The Soviet Union and America never fought each other directly; they used client states, like Vietnam to spread their beliefs of communism or capitalism.

Introduction What was the cold war? The cold war was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the eastern bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states) and powers in the western block (the United States, its NATO allies and others). The cold war was caused by many things for example American feared of a communist attack, Truman’s dislike of Stalin, USSR fear of the American atomic bomb and many more. The cold war was marked by continuous rivalry between the two former World War II allies.

In 1955, the Soviet Union and the United States of America started building rockets that were launched into space. Thus, the Race for Space had begun! Many Americans and Soviets were driven by ambition. Captain Cook says, "I had the ambition to not only go farther than man had gone before, but to go as far as it was possible to go." The Sputnik I was the very first man-made object to get into space, which started off the space race. The determination burned in the Americans’ and Soviets’ hearts, and they both decided to reach the moon first, if it was the last thing they did. On both sides, many cosmonauts and astronauts lost their lives to this dream of getting into space, but they would not let one or two deaths

The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.

“Without NASA's adoption of this stubbornly held minority opinion in 1962, the United States may still have reached the Moon, but almost certainly it would not have been accomplished by the end of the 1960s, President Kennedy's target date.”