United States And The Soviet Union - 1750 Words

Following World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union sprung into what is now called the Cold War, and subsequently the Space Race. This was a time period where our country’s debt more than quadrupled, there was a constant fear of Nuclear War, and relations with another world superpower and former ally were rendered nearly irreparable. National Security and pride faltered initially, but from what seemed like it could have been the end of the capitalist world as we knew it, something incredible happened: we made it to the moon. After countless losses in many different categories of the Space Race to the USSR, the United States shifted its focus to the more long term goal of landing the first manned spacecraft on the moon.†¦show more content†¦In 1947, after Harry Truman took over as President, was when tensions between the USSR and the United States finally sprung into what is now known as the Cold War. The spread of communism throughout Eastern Europe, China and Korea made Americans feel threatened by their increasing power and influence. Even after the war the United States continued operation in military bases which had the initial intent to protect against further Nazi advancement into Western Europe. Post-World War II these bases seemed to serve the purpose of maintaining a presence where their greatest perceived threat continued to grow. On the opposite side of the Cold War conflict, Josef Stalin and the Soviets grew ever more wary of the United States, who still were the country with Nuclear weapon capabilities at the time. So when Stalin called for the manufacturing of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (Gatland, Kenneth. Manned Spacecraft, Second Revision. 1976. Pg 100) a viscous cycle ensued. For every technological advancement either the United States or USSR made from 1947 until the end of the 1960’s, the other would try to match or beat it with the justification that it was in the best interests of national security. The United States had its first successful ICBM in 1957 (Hall, Rex; David J. Shayler. The Rocket Men: Vostok Voskhod, The First Soviet Manned Spaceflights. Pg 56) and once the Soviet’s developed their first successful Nuclear weaponry in 1949,