cold war
Timeline 1967
A fire during routine testing of the Apollo spacecraft = kills three astronauts The Russians send their condolences to the families of the astronauts. President Johnson and counterparts in London and Moscow sign the "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space." Agree that outer space will remain demilitarized, no territorial claims on earth orbit or any planetary bodies will be made and that astronauts or cosmonauts who find themselves landing off course will be returned to their home countries.
Events - Post WW II
After World War II drew to a close in the mid-20th century, a new conflict began. Known as the Cold War, this battle pitted the world's two great powers-the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union-against each other. Beginning in the late 1950s, space would become another dramatic arena for this competition, as each side sought to prove the superiority of its technology, its military firepower and-by extension-its political-economic system. (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Timeline 1962
Astronaut John Glenn during his flight on Friendship 7 orbits the Earth three times, = first American in orbit. He is hailed as a hero.
Events on Earth - Sputnik in Context - 1950s
By the mid-1950s, the U.S.-Soviet Cold War = • worked its way into the fabric of everyday life • fueled by the arms race • and the growing threat of nuclear weapons, • wide-ranging espionage and counter-espionage • role of the media. Tensions continue throughout the space race, exacerbated by such events as the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and the outbreak of war in Southeast Asia. (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Quote - Balance of Terror - Formation of the term "Cold War"
Churchill called it 'the balance of terror' - the central characteristic of the Cold War, which became more widely known as Mutually Assured Destruction. Reflects the fact that the two superpowers could not engage each other militarily without the threat of escalation to a nuclear war. (http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/cold/articles/godwin.html)
The Cold War on Earth - Close of the Cold War 1980s
Cold War = heated up again under Reagan. Reagan = communism = threatened freedom. Gives $ and military aid to anticommunist governments. This policy = the Reagan Doctrine - mostly in the developing world.
Events - 1958-1959
Eisenhower also creates two national space programs that would operate with NASA's program. The first, = exploits the military potential of space. The second, used orbiting satellites to gather intelligence on the Soviet Union and its allies. (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
The Cold War on Earth - Effects Abroad 1950s Korean War
Growing concern = Soviet threat = abroad. 1950 = the first military action of the Cold War = Soviet-backed North Korean People's Army = invaded the south. US = feared this = the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world Result: nonintervention = not an option. Truman sent military into Korea, = war dragged to a stalemate = ended in 1953. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
The Cold War on Earth: The Red Scare 1950s
In Hollywood, HUAC = forced hundreds of peopl to renounce left-wing political beliefs and testify against one another. More than 500 people = lost their jobs = "blacklisted" writers, directors, actors and others = unable to work again for more than a decade. HUAC = accused State Department workers of engaging in subversive activities. Senator Joseph McCarthy = expanded this probe to the federal government = thousands of federal employees = investigated, fired and even prosecuted. Anticommunist hysteria = spread throughout the 1950s, http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Timeline 1961
JFK = accelerates space program = wants a moon landing within the decade. JFK Speech: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
Events - 1961 - Space Race Heats Up - Kennedy
JFK = bold, public claim that the U.S. = land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. 1962, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth = foundations of NASA's lunar landing program-called Project Apollo (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Events - Who Won the Space Race?
Moon Landing = US = "won" the space race Soviets = four failed attempts to launch a lunar landing craft between 1969-1972. • American public's attention = captivated by the space race • Soviet and U.S. space programs = heavily covered in the national media. • Frenzy of interest = encouraged by the new medium of television. • Astronauts = seen as the ultimate American heroes • Soviets, in turn, = pictured as the ultimate bad guys, with their efforts to surpass America and prove the power of the Communism. (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Events - Apollo - From 1961 to 1964
NASA's budget = increased almost 500 percent Apollo = setback in 196, = three astronauts = killed after their spacecraft caught fire during a launch simulation.
The Cold War on Earth - Close of the Cold War 1960s
Nixon = new approach to international relations. Wants to use diplomacy ≠ of military action Encourages the UN = recognize the communist Chinese government Adopts a policy = "détente"-"relaxation"-toward the Soviet Union. 1972 = signs with premier Brezhnev Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), = prohibits the manufacture of nuclear missiles by both sides and reduces the threat of nuclear war. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Space Events - Sputnik 1957
On October 4 = Soviets launch Sputnik. Result: Americans feared the implications of the first man-made satellite orbiting above the Earth.
Events - Space Exploration -Sputnik 1957
Space exploration = another place for Cold War competition. Sputnik (Russian for "traveler") = the world's first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth's orbit. Sputnik's launch = surprise to most Americans. In US, space = seen as the next frontier • extension American exploration • important not to "lose" to the Soviets. • Demonstration of power of USSR = capable of delivering a nuclear warhead in U.S. • made gathering intelligence about Soviet military activities particularly urgent. (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Sputnik -1957
Sputnik 2 carries Laika, a female dog, into space. scientists = plan to put Laika to sleep after a week - reports = that Laika died after liftoff, from stress and high temperatures inside the capsule.
The Cold War on Earth - The Atomic Age High stakes of Cold War H Bomb test
Stakes of the Cold War = high. The first H-bomb test, in the Marshall Islands, = showed just how terrible bombs could be = created a 25-square-mile fireball blew up the island and made a huge hole in the ocean floor. It had the power to destroy half of Manhattan. Later American and Soviet tests put poisonous radioactive waste into the atmosphere. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Quote - Formation of NASA National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958
The Congress declares that the general welfare and security of the United States require that adequate provision be made for aeronautical and space activities. The Congress further declares that such activities shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, a civilian agency exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except that activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations, or the defense of the United States (including the research and development necessary to make effective provision for the defense of the United States) shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense. (National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958).
Quote/Fact
The term "cold war" first appeared in a 1945 essay by the English writer George Orwell called "You and the Atomic Bomb."
Quote - Walter Cronkite Events of 1968
"Everything seemed to come to a head in '68. There were the assassinations of two of the leaders of the more liberal causes. Bobby Kennedy, shortly after winning that election in California that probably would have put him over the top as the presidential candidate that year, and Martin Luther King , of course, in Memphis, was a terrible blow to the entire cause of civil rights. By the summer of '68 the Democratic convention turned out to be a terrible shambles of violence and counter-violence by the Chicago police... By December the country was pretty far down."
Quote - Moon Landing 1961 John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961
"I believe 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. No single space project...will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important...and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish"
Quote - Sputnik —Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience
"Never before had so small and so harmless an object created such consternation."
Quote - USSR Space program Sergey Korolev, leader of USSR space program
"Our mission is to ensure that the Soviet rockets fly higher and farther than has been accomplished anywhere else up until now. Our mission is to ensure that a Soviet man be the first to fly in a rocket. And our mission is to ensure that it is Soviet rockets and Soviet spaceships that are the first to master the limitless space of the cosmos" Sergey Korolev, leader of USSR space program
Quote - Walter Cronkite Events of 1968
"The whole 1960s really culminating in 1968 were the most terrible decade, undoubtedly, of the twentieth century and very possibly our entire history, even including the decade of the Civil War. America was divided as it never had been since the Civil War and by the Vietnam War, by the civil rights fight."
Quote - 1968 - Significance of Apollo 8
"We got millions of telegrams after we landed, but the one I remember most was, 'Congratulations to the crew of Apollo 8. You saved 1968.' We didn't save it [ourselves] -- but a lot of the people who made Apollo work saved it." -- Frank Borman, Apollo 8 astronaut
The Cold War on Earth: The Red Scare 1947
1947 = the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) brings the Cold War to US in another way = began a series of hearings to show that communist subversion in the United States was alive and well. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
The Cold War on Earth - Extends to Space 1958-1961
1958 = U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by Wernher von Braun, = Space Race = underway. Eisenhower = signed a public order creating the NASA = dedicated to space exploration and the military potential of space. Soviets = ahead = launching the first man into space in 1961. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Events - 1959-1961 - Space Race Heats Up
1959, the Soviet space program = step forward with the launch of Luna 2, the first space probe to hit the moon. 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth In the the U.S. = Project Mercury, test craft with chimpanzees, and held a final test flight in March 1961 1961 Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space (not in orbit). (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
The Cold War on Earth - Effects Abroad 1960s Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis
1960s, President Kennedy = The Bay of Pigs invasion in and the Cuban missile crisis the following year = real communist threat = lay in the unstable, postcolonial "Third World" Vietnam is next problem Collapse of French colonial regime = led to a struggle between the American-backed nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem in the south and the communist nationalist Ho Chi Minh in the north. US = committed to anticommunist government in the region becomes clear that in order to contain communist expansionism = intervene This "brief military action" = a 10-year conflict. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Events - Apollo - From 1961 to 1964
1968 = launch of Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. July 16, 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins = Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt. Armstrong = first man to walk on the moon's surface; he famously called the moment "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Timeline 1966
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin performs extravehicular activity (EVA) Aldrin = three space walks, = a number of physical tasks.
Time Line - 1958
Eisenhower = signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 into law, establishing NASA. At first, Eisenhower insisted = space program = non-military and that it ≠ use defense missiles for space exploration. Pioneer 3, an American unmanned satellite, fails to reach the moon, but discovers a second radiation belt around the Earth.
Timeline 1961
Alan Shepard = Freedom 7 = first Mercury mission, = first American in space. NASA announces, "The astronaut reports that he is A-OK," = new phrase into the US vocal.
Cold War on Earth - The Atomic Age Rise of atomic weapon production - Arms Race begins 1949 - Creation of the super bomb
American officials = encouraged the development of atomic weapons like the ones that had ended World War II. Deadly "arms race" begins in 1949, Soviets = tested an atom bomb of their own. In response, Truman = announced that the US = would build a destructive atomic weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or "superbomb." Stalin follows suit.
Timeline 1969
Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon.
Cold War on Earth: The Atomic Age - Effect of Containment Policy
Containment = also provided the rationale for an unprecedented arms buildup in the United States. In 1950, a National Security Council Report NSC-68 = echoed Truman's recommendation that the country use military force to "contain" communist expansionism. Report calls for a four-fold increase in defense spending. (http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history)
The Soviet Lunar Program and the Space Race A Cosmonaut's Defense Alexei Leonov Quote
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first man to walk in space. He recalled the Soviet reaction to the moon race: "Our people were convinced that we would be the first to land on the moon because they were used to the fact that we were always the first, the first, the first. Only we, the cosmonauts, and especially the moon crew, understood that this was not going to happen. It was not character; it was funding that played a role here. We knew that the U.S. had invested $25 billion. We had invested 2.5 billion rubles in the entire space program, for both manned and unmanned flights. This was ten times less. The moon crew understood that we had a capability to circumnavigate the moon six months earlier than Frank Borman, but we knew that we would not be able to land on the moon ahead of the astronauts."
Cold War on Earth
During World War II, United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. Relationship between the two nations = a tense one. Americans = wary of communism and Stalin's tyrannical rule. Soviets = resented the Americans' refusal to treat the USSR as a legitimate international community and delayed part into World War II = deaths of millions of Russians. After the war feelings intensify = overwhelming sense of distrust. Postwar Soviet expansion Eastern Europe = fueled Americans' fears of a Russian plan to control the world. USSR = resents American rhetoric, arms buildup and interventionist approach to international relations. Result: In hostile atmosphere, no single party = entirely to blame for the Cold War; some historians believe it was inevitable.(http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history)
The Cold War on Earth - The Atomic Age Threat of nuclear war
Ever-present threat of nuclear war = a great impact on American life. • People built bomb shelters • practiced attack drills 1950s and 1960s = an epidemic of popular films = nuclear devastation Result = Cold War = a constant presence in Americans' everyday lives. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Timeline 1959
Pattern by the Soviet space program = missions not announced until they could be hailed as successes. U.S. sends the unmanned Pioneer 4 to the moon in the first American lunar flyby. NASA = introduces first seven astronauts to the world. Even without doing anything = instantly seen as heroes by the American public. The Soviets' Luna 2 crash-lands on the moon = the first man-made object to reach another planetary body. Luna 3 = flies around the moon, taking the first photographs of the far side of the moon.
Timeline 1965
Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov fly into orbit. Leonov leaves the spacecraft on the first "spacewalk." Gemini 4 flight crew Ed White performs the first American space walk.
Timeline 1963
Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, becomes the first woman in space. The American program = no female astronauts.
The Soviet Lunar Program and the Space Race After Sputnik Implications
Soon after Sputnik, Soviets = turned attention to the moon. Unmanned probes = launched in 1958. By 1959, Luna 2 crash-landed on the moon - by October a third probe circled around and photographed the far side of the moon. The next step would be a manned mission around the moon.
Timeline 1961
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin = orbit; he is the first human in space. The Soviets refer to Gagarin as a "cosmonaut." When asked for comment at 4 a.m., the NASA press liaison, John "Shorty" Powers, mumbles, "We're all asleep down here," -- and is quoted widely, to his dismay.
The Soviet Lunar Program and the Space Race Soviets Advance Undercover Implications
Soviets = continued to advance a manned space program while the Americans struggled to catch up. In Borman's view, "they beat us to the punch first off. Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit ... they beat us to a space walk ... the first woman in space, the first multiple crew in space." The Soviets kept their program under wraps, announcing each success only after it happened.
Timeline 1957
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 into earth orbi The Soviet newspaper Pravda mentions Sputnik in a short piece at the bottom of page one. in contrast = bold headlines and major stories run in British and American newspapers Result: U.S.S.R. = realizes Sputnik program = propaganda tool.
The Soviet Lunar Program and the Space Race Implications
The Space Race = a battle in the Cold War a technological battle fought by Soviet and American scientists and engineers, and by Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts. Though it was intellectual in nature, it was a battle in which every loss of life on either side was mourned by all participants.
The Moon and Domestic Politics Implications
The Space Race = culminated in Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin's "one small step" onto the moon in 1969 • began under a Republican president, Eisenhower; • was accelerated by two Democrats, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson; • concluded with Republican, Richard Nixon. Result: Although some = opposed the tremendous amount of money needed to put a man on the moon , most Americans = support NASA's work against a common threat = Soviet domination of space.
Space Events - Sputnik
The impact of Sputnik on the United States and the world was enormous and unprecedented. The majority of people living today, were born after Sputnik was launched and may be unaware of the degree to which it helped shape life as we know it. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/sputnik-impact-on-america.html)
Events - Who won the Space Race?
U.S. government interest in lunar missions ≠ after the early 1970s. 1975 = joint Apollo-Soyuz mission sent U.S. astronauts in spacecraft = docked in orbit with a Soviet-made Soyuz vehicle. When the commanders = greeted each other, their "handshake in space" = symbolized the improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations in the late Cold War-era.(http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
Events - 1958
U.S. launches its own satellite, Explorer I, d President Dwight Eisenhower signs a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration. (http://www.history.com/topics/space-race)
The Soviet Lunar Program and the Space Race A real Enemy Implications
With Sputnik = Americans = feared the implications of the first man-made satellite orbiting above the Earth. Astronaut Frank Borman recalled, "I was teaching at West Point when Sputnik was announced. ... The Cold War was a very real thing and there was a very great concern of a nuclear exchange and all of a sudden this country that was our real enemy had jumped the gun and launched a satellite, and it was an enormous impact. The [American] public began to question our educational system, they questioned the Eisenhower administration. It was a time of very, very serious self-doubt across the whole society."
Cold War on Earth - Containment Foreign policy post WW II Quote from George Kennan and Truman
World War II over = best defense against the Soviet threat = a strategy called "containment." 1946, in his famous "Long Telegram," the diplomat George Kennan (1904-2005) explained: The Soviet Union was "a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus vivendi [agreement between parties that disagree]"; as a result, America's only choice was the "long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies." President Harry Truman = agrees. "It must be the policy of the United States," he declared before Congress in 1947, "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation...by outside pressures." This way of thinking = shapes American foreign policy for the next four decades. (http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history)
