Cold War Technology Introduction The Cold War era was a vital time in world history, let alone in American history. The United States and the Soviet Union were racing to see who could accomplish what fastest. The Cold War was a time of suspicion and rivalry between America and the Soviet Union. Between both of these superpowers, they had enough nuclear weapons to kill the planet many times over. Both countries saw the other as a constant threat and were preparing for a possible war. From the years 1945 to 1991, this rivalry would expand over categories such as technology, weaponization, construction of nuclear weapons, and even reaching to the far reaches of the moon and back. Leading to the Cold War The Soviet Union (USSR), Britain, and …show more content…
The role of the military was massive. Scientists were swayed towards the technology needs of the Cold War in the content and direction of most research in the Cold War era. Science was at an all time high during the Cold War. The Department of Defense had come to support education, especially physical science and engineering. This overall meant America was spending a lot of money. America was spending this money to develop new technology for what seemed to concern national security. After Sputnik, the expenses reached all time high in the 1960s at 5.5 billion a year, with the Department of Defense accounting for 80 percent of the budget. Of the R&D budget, the Department of Defense was spending about three-quarters of industrial money on electronics and aerospace technology. Military-driven technologies proved useful for post-Cold War times and later generations. These technologies include microwave electronics, radar systems, and X-ray tubes. All these technologies set a path for scientists and engineers, consuming what they designed and …show more content…
America was committing itself to winning the so called “space race” against the Soviets. They were ahead at the time, having already launched Sputnik successfully. This was the start of satellite technology. In 1957, America failed to send Vanguard into space, though Explorer I was launched successfully a month later. Officials knew America needed a more organized effort if we were going to win the space race. During the Space Race, the Soviets were first to place a satellite in orbit, first to send a probe to the moon, first to place a human in space, first et cetera, et cetera. They had an impressive amount of accomplishments. America had to land a guy on the moon and safely bring him home. That moment happened on the 20th of July 1969 when a radio signal came through: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” This quote rests forever in Earth’s book of moments when every person was awestruck. The race to the moon was over. Neil Armstrong was about to step foot where no one had gone before. Also during the Cold War, The North American Aerospace Defense Headquarters (NORAD) is a complex built 2,500 feet inside of Colorado’s Cheyenne mountain. It was created in 1958 to detect and track the Soviet Union’s nuclear missiles during a strike. Since the Cold War era has ended, the employees monitor air traffic of planes and
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
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.
In 1980, it seemed like the United States was not as dominant in the world as it had been before. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union began after World War II. The two nations had joined forces as members of the Allies, but tensions arose after the war. The Americans were very worried about the spread of Soviet communism, and tried to prevent it with a policy of containment, where the United States would protect countries from outside oppression. The Cold War also expanded to include the race between the Soviets and Americans to create atomic weapons. Furthermore, there was a race between the two countries to put the first man in space, which was accomplished by the United States in 1961 (“Cold War History”). The Cold War was a standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union to try to prove their dominance in the world. Each country wanted to have more power and diminish the power of the other. At home, Americans were paranoid with the thought of Soviet spies and communists hiding amongst them, dubbed the “Red Scare.” President Richard Nixon and the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic A...
Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union made it a priority to outdo each other in every possible facet from arsenals of missiles to international alliances and spheres of influences. Yet when the Soviets launched Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, the world changed forever. The first manmade object was fired into space, and it appeared that American technology and science had fallen behind. Yet, the public feared that not only were they now technologically inferior to the Soviets, but also deduced that if a satellite could be launched into space, a nuclear missile could just as likely reach the mainland United States. Less than a month later, the Soviets pushed the bounds of technology yet again by
The Cold War was a post-World War II struggle between the United States. and its allies and the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military conflict did not occur between the two superpowers, but intense economic and diplomatic struggles erupted in the country. Different interests led to mutual suspicion and hostility in a rising philosophy. The United States played a major role in the ending of the Cold War.
This blow to national pride along with the fear that the Soviets could potentially launch ICBMs from space led to “Rocket fever”. The sudden wave of nationalism and the desire to build a space program worthier to that of the Soviet Union led to the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under President Eisenhower, the investment of billions of dollars in missile development, and the expansion of the National Academy of Science’s charter.... ... middle of paper ... ...
On October 4, 1957 Russia launched a rocket named Sputnik ( faculty etsu, 2001). The United States (U.S) was caught off guard. Sputnik had the ability to orbit the Earth in just 96 minutes and transmit a frequency easily heard with an amateur radio (Figure 1). If the Russian could launch a satellite under our noses without our knowledge and have the ability to send a signal into our homes in 1957 it was clear that the U.S. was unprepared and had under estimated the ability of their adversaries. We clearly needed a new way of doing business, a new way of defending our country and our families. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had now received a wakeup call, it was time to act. Our enemy could now be thousands of miles away, and still able to get into our homes. The enemy could get to our families without even stepping foot into our homes. The world as we knew it would never be the same.
When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.
The Americans took a much more urgent approach after seeing what the U.S.S.R. was truly capable of. The United States would respond with various satellites including those of the Explorer Series and more. However, the Soviet Union would again one-up the United States, and all of their now seemingly feeble satellite launches, by putting the first man into outer space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. Now the quest gained an even more competitive drive and the United States soon put Alan B. Shepard into space twenty-three days later. The Space Race was truly a trek for the firsts of history, essentially just exterrestrial one-ups throughout an extended period of time. That very same year, John F. Kennedy founded NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, just for that purpose, to explore the world beyond their own, while maintaining the central aim, to beat the Soviets outright. JFK was a leading power in this race, and “by giving NASA programs top priority, his actions essentially played on American fears of communism and implicitly inferred that the Eisenhower administration had not done enough to meet the Sputnik challenge. Too many Americans were beginning to feel a need to vindicate the ‘long-standing communist boast that theirs was the superior system for galvanizing human productivity’” (Koman 43). Winning this space race was way more than just an extraterrestrial victory, it would hopefully squander the communists’ hopes and assert true American dominance. The United States sought to eliminate any presumption of communist superiority and did so in the near future by winning this Cold War space race, thanks to the execution of a truly unimaginable
The Cold War began from the threats that the US and USSR felt from each other and a power struggle worldwide after WWII. The US felt the threat of communism spreading and the USSR felt the US was a threat of power. Nuclear weapons were used between the Soviet Union and the US as an arms race to show who was more powerful. The Soviet Union and the US never used those weapons for war but instead as a symbol for power. The Cold War had a major affect on today’s science, technology, and
The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and Russia that began after the conclusion of World War II. Since the birth of the first communist country in the Russian Revolution, Americans were suspicious of the foreign Soviet nation. This tension continued into and after the Second World War despite the fact that both nations fought on the same side. During the war, there were disagreements and miscommunications during conferences that led to misinterpretations of accords. The United States established foreign policies in response to Soviet expansion. To first understand the origins of the Cold War, one must examine the Russian Revolution.
The Cold War was a high-tension conflict between two extremely powerful nations, leading to a great deal of fear and insecurity. The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union was not a typical one. A conflict with direct fighting would be considered a hot war/shooting war, where soldiers engage in combat, but since there was no direct fighting, it is known as a cold war (“Beginnings” par. 3). Bernard Baruch, a presidential advisor, had come up with the term “cold war” in a speech he gave in April 1947. Baruch said, “Let us not be deceived- today we are in the midst of a cold war” (Fogarty par. 1). The Cold War was disagreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over economic and political differences. It was a clashing between
The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause: Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other. After WWII their relationship became even more tense due to the building of new weapons capable of destroying entire countries.
In the war between countries, technology has played a huge part in the outcome; this is especially evident during the time of World War II. Technology in warfare consisted of weapons, vehicles, aircrafts, and chemical reactants. Technology during World War I was lacking and countries knew when World War II began that in order for them to be victorious they must have the most technologically advanced weapons and other devices or systems that would benefit the nation. The Allies were victorious in WW2 because they made better use of the available technologies than the Germans, advancing in communication/detection systems such as sonar and the radio, as well as, weapons including the atomic bomb, and bomber aircrafts.
Technology is a very important part of warfare. Technology is driven by the military. The army's race during the cold war, spawned some of the greatest technical achievements in human history. Space travel for example is a result of the X-plane project. The Internet was produced by the military as well. If we stop investing in military technology, we risk our safety. If other nations had more advance technology than we do, they would have more power than we do. If that was to happen, we face the threat of that nation taking over us.