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advancement of technology during the cold war
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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 in 1945 to 1953 brought about a period of tension and hostility due to the feud between the United States and the Soviet Union. The period began with the end of the Second World War. The situation acquired the title for there was no physical active war between the two rivals. The probability of the tension got to be the fear of the then rise in nuclear ammunition. Things began to roll when a US based U2 sky plane got to take photos of some USSR intermediate ballistic missiles with the capability of transporting nuclear heads.
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...
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.
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
Many of the military technological advancements that have been made in the last 60 years can be attributed to the Cold War. Much of the technology developed during the period of the Cold War is still in use today by the military and government. Advancements in offensive technology are well known to just about everyone in the way of nuclear energy harnessed in the form of the nuclear bomb, but little is known about the battle for information during the Cold War. The Cold War produced some of the most advanced technology used in the fields of detection and reconnaissance in history. The United States’ detection and reconnaissance technology played a major role against communism during the Cold War, and these types of technology still play roles today.
The cold war era is when America was at its most suspicious and paranoid. The cold war grew out of tensions that were post WWII. Two worldly super powers clashed over rivalry and one wanted to have more influence. This rivalry went for almost half of the 20th century, and led to many international incidents that almost brought both powers to a mutual destruction.
The aerospace program gets a special coverage since it was the breaking point in the cold war. After the USSR launched the sputnik on 1957; US citizens and experts were in chock, the fear from losing the technology development race was in its pick. Moreover, the defeat of the US in Cuba in the Bay of Pigs ruined the American prestige and raises many questions about the ability of the US leaders to win the race. As a result, politician escalate the arm race and put more effort to catch up with the space race and restore faith of the people in the
The Cold War was the defining feature of American foreign policy for decades until contemporary time. The Soviet Union was believed to be an imperialist threat to the entire world as was expected to spread the atrocity of communism throughout the world. The US and the Western half of the world needed to prevent the USSR from rolling across countries the same way they trampled across Eastern Europe after World War II. At the beginning the Cold War reinforced a sense of paranoia and the ideal that "if we don't do it first they will". The access of nuclear arms during this period had since exaggerated the notion that America was better than all other countries in the world.
The expansion of the television in the 1950s brought civil rights to the attention of americans. From the media coverage of the Rosa Parks incident to the first ever TV show hosted by an African American in 1950 were the first sparks of a movement that would catch fire in the 1960s (“1950s”). Another prominent technological invention of the 1950s was the hydrogen bomb invented on November 1st 1952. After the United States invented the hydrogen bomb in less than a year, on August 12th 1953 the Soviet Union detonated their first hydrogen bomb. Throughout the 1950s the Cold War was going on between the United States and the Soviet Union and the invention of the hydrogen bomb started an arms race to see who could make the most bombs in the shortest amount of time. This technology further escalated the Cold War and brought it to a tipping point in the next decade (Shmoop Editorial Team). Another technology that intensified the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was the launch of the first satellites Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 by the Soviet Union which started the space race. The launch of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 caused a massive uproar in the american public which lead to the launch of America’s first satellite Explorer 1 on February 1st 1958 and the creation of NASA on July 29th 1958 a year after Sputnik 1 and 2 in 1957 (Virginia and Hugh pg. 19-20). All these technological
The military thought there were failing in technology advancement. So U.S policy makers accelerated space and weapon programs. Many people began to send money to the space program to catch up. The Soviets put fear into people because they tested the first intercontinental missile. The United States thought
An organization that still thrives today, NASA was formed under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1975 as a result of the infamous Space Race. After the launch of Sputnik I, a satellite which orbited outside of Earth’s atmosphere, the United States was thrown into a panic believing that the USSR had surpassed the intellectually. NASA had a large roll in created many modern day technologies previously mentioned such as the microwave, cell phones, internet,aviation safety, and even the modern day CD. Many of which were a result of the difficulties and adjustments which had to be made when sending a man into space, and eventually, to land on the moon. This is not to mention the development of military and aircraft improvements which came from the organization.
The Space Race is remarkably similar to that of the arms race because of the parallel between the creation of the atomic bomb and the goal of reaching the moon. The United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively established its place as the technologically superior nation; however, major milestones in space achieved early by the Soviets damaged America’s reputation. In 1957, Soviet scientists shocked the world by successfully launching the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, beyond the Kármán Line (the boundary of space). This amazing breakthrough “rattled American self-confidence. It cast doubts on America’s vaunted scientific superiority and raised some sobering military questions.” 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...
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were in a race to who would reach space first. While the United States is often thought of as the best in many ways, the Soviet Union was able to get to space first with Sputnik. This was scary for the United States because the Soviet Union was able to send people and missiles into the air and the United States could not do that same. There was an urgency for the United States space program.
Life in the United States was very different once the space race was underway, and especially after the Soviet Union was able to launch the first space craft, Sputnik 1, into space. After the launching of Sputnik 1, Americans were struck with fear knowing that an enemy satellite was flying right over their heads and that we were behind the Soviet Union in the space race. As a counter to the launching of Sputnik 1, the CIA, white house, and Air Force all teamed up and created a surveillance satellite that would be able to monitor where every Soviet Union missile was being held. America was intimidated by the Soviet Union’s initial success in the space race, and although leaders of America never admitted to in,
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.