15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[File:Sputnik-02.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Sputnik]]__NOTOC__
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. Sputnik-1 was an incredible technological achievement and its successful launch came as a shock to the United States. Americans were stunned that the US had not accomplished this scientific advancement first. Additionally, the Eisenhower administration immediately became concerned that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union. In essence, after the launch, the United States began to consistently overestimate the state of Soviet rocket technology and invested billions of dollars to keep up. The successful launched ratcheted up both [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061176281/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061176281&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=817e7466f852e8f21432f2801ea677c7 the space race ] and the Cold War.
====United States fears failling behind the USSR====
Eventually, lawmakers and political campaigners in the United States successfully exploited the fear of a “missile gap” developing between U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals in the 1960 presidential election, which brought John F. Kennedy to power over Eisenhower’s vice president, Richard Nixon. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 served to remind both sides of the dangers of the weapons they were developing.
{{MediaWiki:AmNative}}
* Republished from [https://history.state.gov/| Office of the Historian, United States Department of State]
