AMerica During the COld war
Artifacts
May 1st, 1960, Francis Gary Powers is Shot DownHigh flying, American spy planes had been flying over Russia since the early 50s attempting to gather information with high-resolution cameras. Khrushchev was aware of this and threatened to shoot them down if they did not stop. America ignored the threat for they believed it was not yet possible to shoot a missile that high. Of course the Soviets proved them wrong and shot down one of their plans on May 1st, 1960, flown by pilot Francis Gary Powers. Nobody thought he had survived so when America was questioned they acted as like the didn’t know the plane. However when they found out that Powers had in fact survived, and America spontaneously remembered that it was their plane, and used a captured soviet spy as a bargaining chip to get Powers back.
-Stefanie Bartels |
February 9, 1950,
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April 12, 1961, Yuri GagarinThe race to space is one of the most well known races in history, a race between two countries, Russia and the U.S., trying to shoot themselves to the stars first. The country that made it first was Russia, with their first satellite launched on October 4, 1957, called Sputnik, a satellite believed to be able to take pictures by the Americans, but in fact could only beep and be tracked by the Russians. After 4 years of hard work on April 12, 1961 they launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, completing one orbit around the earth, totalling in 1 hour and 48 minutes in space. This was a huge embarrassment for America considering they’d been trying to get to space first, but they made it only one short month later, shooting Alan Shepard to the stars and back.
-Stefanie Bartels |
1957-1961 SputnickSputnik was the first man made satellite launched into space, The Soviets developed and launched this satellite on Oct 4,1957. This sparked the start of “The Race for Space”. Unfortunately this caused the Russians to become a step ahead, causing national embarrassment for all American citizens. Russia continued to embarrass us, as first astronaut Yuri Gagarin launched into space on April 4th 1961 we fell behind yet again to The Soviet Union. While the Russians held missiles and satellites at their army's command, the U.S only held bomber planes in our military, and we were eager to catch up in “The Race for Space.”
-Julia Watson |
1962, The Cuban Missile CrisisOn October 14, 1962, a U-2 spy plane flew over Cuba and took photos of Soviet nuclear missile sites that were being built. This caused fear in America and President Kennedy had to decide what action to take and his decision was to blockade Cuba. Any ships with the destination of Cuba with cargoes of “offensive weapons” would be turned back. On October 26 and 27, the Soviet lead, Khrushchev wrote letters to Kennedy saying that he was willing to remove the missiles if the U.S. agreed to not invade Cuba and the second one demanded that the United States removed the missiles that were placed in Turkey. Kennedy replied to just the first letter, saying that they wouldn’t invade Cuba and Khrushchev removed the missiles, ending the crisis.
-Josie Parks |
Fidel CastroFidel Castro was the prime minister of the Republic of China from 1959 to 1976, and then from 1976 to 2008 as President. Before and during the time that he was President, he was the First Secretary of the Communist Part of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. He recently died at the age of 90 on November 25, 2016.
-Stefanie Bartels |
Spy Cases
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Alger Hiss was a US Department official who was accused of being a communist agent and on his second trial his was found guilty for perjury and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
-Josie Parks |
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both members of the communist party and that raised suspicion of them being spies. They were arrested and convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets and were later sentenced to death by the electric chair.
-Josie Parks |
Bay of pigs invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed attempt to overthrow the communist government lead by Fidel Castro. This invasion was supported by a CIA sponsored paramilitary group, and led by President John F. Kennedy. Although President Eisenhower was told the plan was efficient and well throughout, during the actual invasion (approved by President Kennedy) proved to be a complete failure. April 17th of 1961 american military personnel, along with a few select military generals left Guatemala by both boat and plane to the bay of pigs. There their boats were damaged by unseen coral reefs and ultimately became unusable, this along with may other errors, made for the failed invasion. The end of this invasion led to military embarrassment, and the ultimate strengthening of communism in Cuba. -Julia Watson |
Summaries
During the Cold War, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union were given opportunities to respond to the fear that was felt between both countries, and although they both responded in different ways, many people still wonder why the world didn’t come to “mutually assured destruction”. Many Americans felt embarrassed by the development and launch of the first Sputnik in October of 1957, because it meant that the Russians were now one step ahead of them in the Race for Space. The first man in space (Russian, Yuri Gagarin) made a giant leap towards spacecraft knowledge and development and because of this America felt eager more than ever to catch back up. Immediately following the launch of the first Russian Sputnik, America put satellite research into plan. America's first satellite was launched on January 31, 1958, and will forever be an important date in history. Throughout the space race, Russians and Americans alike struggled to be ahead of one another in space development. America took one large leap forward when America’s first space program NASA was created on October 1st, 1958. Following the next phases of The Cold War, Cuba became greatly involved in the war between the US and the Soviet Union. In the beginning of the year 1960, Khrushchev secretly supplied Cuba, with the manual labor, and military weaponry needed to atomically attack the United States. This included missile trailers, missile launchers, atomic missiles, and military personnel. Kennedy later found out about this exchange and warned the Soviets that “the gravest issue would arise” if the soviets did not remove this weaponry in the given amount of time. At the end of the conference, Khrushchev ended up backing down and returning the missiles to Russia, but this also meant that the US would need to remove their missiles from Turkey. In the end nothing was lost or gained, but it was the closest point during the Cold War, in which both opposing sides came to a nuclear war. In conclusion, through both events in the Cold War, it was clear that both sides were equally prepared and equally eager to begin a war with the new technology and development that had been recently discovered. The only thing that held back both countries was the knowledge of “mutually assured destruction.”
-Julia Watson
-Julia Watson
Throughout the entire Cold War, America was fearful of the infiltration of communism because McCarthyism led to the belief of alleged spies in America, which led to mistrust among Americans. On February 9th, 1950, Joseph McCarthy claimed he had a list of 200 communists in the United States State Department. In 1937, the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created to investigate communist activities in the United States. McCarthy’s list led to investigations started by the HUAC. Many people were accused of being communists after being investigated and they lost their jobs, or were blacklisted, even though most of them did not belong to the Communist Party. Innocent people were being accused because others were afraid communism would spread through all of America, so it was hard for people to trust other Americans. These investigations became known as McCarthyism which can be defined as the time of anti-communist hysteria during the Red Scare. Eventually, the US Senate investigated McCarthy, and most of his claims were deemed false. President Truman eventually spoke out against him and the Senate voted to condemn him. Some of the people that were convicted of being spies (through McCarthyism) included Alger Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Most of the spy cases were driven by fear and the accused weren’t even spies. Although occasionally true Russian spies were exposed by McCarthyism. Alger Hiss was a US Department official who was accused of being a communist agent and on his second trial his was found guilty of perjury and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both members of the communist party raising suspicion of them being spies. They were arrested and convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets and were later sentenced to death by the electric chair. In both cases, these suspects were arrested because of the mass paranoia throughout America. McCarthyism and the spy cases occurred because of the mistrust, distrust and fear of each other and communism. America was so fearful and not trusting that people started to essentially turn on each
other because they didn’t want communism to infiltrate America.
-Josie Parks
other because they didn’t want communism to infiltrate America.
-Josie Parks
America feared being watched by the Russians through Russian satellites in space, while at the same time, America was watching them with U-2 planes, we were doing one of the things we feared most. The U.S. had been sending high flying U-2 planes since early 50s, to gather information about Russia and their nuclear weapons, using high resolution cameras. Russia was highly aware that these planes were flying over and were starting to get tired of it. Khrushchev threatened to shoot them down if America did not stop sending over planes but the U.S. ignored this threat and continued to send over planes. This led to Francis Gary Powers getting shot down over Russia, ultimately he survived but was held hostage until the U.S. got him back using a Russian prisoner they had as a bargaining chip. This shows us that the U.S. distrusted the Soviets so much that they continued to risk their own pilots to gather information about Russia’s scientific advancements. Continuing on Russia’s scientific advancements, they had beaten the U.S. to outer space, with their first satellite, Sputnik, which was launched in 1957. This was a huge embarrassment for the U.S., and made them more and more paranoid that Russians were always watching. Sputnik however, could only orbit around the earth and beep so that Russia could track it. In 1961, Russia launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, where he completed one full orbit around the earth resulting in a total of an hour and forty-eight minutes in space. This made America even more terrified that if Russia could get a man into space, then they could send nuclear weapon over to the U.S. and destroy the whole country. America however picked up the pace with their space program and in one short month, they put Alan Shepard into suborbital space before splashing down in the Atlantic only fifteen minutes later. Each country had feared that one would become more advanced than the other and drop a
bomb somewhere in the middle of their country, they distrusted each other so much that America spied on Russia with
planes even though we feared being watched by them.
-Stefanie Bartels
bomb somewhere in the middle of their country, they distrusted each other so much that America spied on Russia with
planes even though we feared being watched by them.
-Stefanie Bartels