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| | Also in 1957, the U.S.S.R. (Soviet Union) launched an unmanned rocket into outer space, carrying a "payload" or satellite famously named "Sputnik". This caused a panic in the United States about how the Soviet Union appeared to be more advanced than Americans, and was ahead of the United States in exploring outer space. Some conservatives felt that it was a tactical ploy by the Russians to send Americans on a "wild goose chase" in outer space, causing the United States to spend lots of money on something unlikely to be productive. | | Also in 1957, the U.S.S.R. (Soviet Union) launched an unmanned rocket into outer space, carrying a "payload" or satellite famously named "Sputnik". This caused a panic in the United States about how the Soviet Union appeared to be more advanced than Americans, and was ahead of the United States in exploring outer space. Some conservatives felt that it was a tactical ploy by the Russians to send Americans on a "wild goose chase" in outer space, causing the United States to spend lots of money on something unlikely to be productive. |
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| − | The United States responded to Sputnik by starting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") in 1958, which is a government-run space program that continues to this day. In 1961, President Kennedy started "Project Apollo" with the goal of beating the Soviet Union to the Moon. As it turned out, the Soviet Union never tried to get to the Moon, and that country may have just been trying to divert American resources to that project. On July 20, 1969, a simulated broadcast<ref>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/nasa.html</ref> of American Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the Moon was broadcast to a record television audience, with Armstrong's words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."<ref>http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_Apollo_35th_Anniversary.html</ref> | + | The United States responded to Sputnik by starting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") in 1958, which is a government-run space program that continues to this day. In 1961, President Kennedy started "Project Apollo" with the goal of beating the Soviet Union to the Moon. On July 20, 1969, a simulated broadcast<ref>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/nasa.html</ref> of American Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the Moon was broadcast to a record television audience, with Armstrong's words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."<ref>http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_Apollo_35th_Anniversary.html</ref> |
| | === Communist takeover of Cuba, and also the Berlin Wall === | | === Communist takeover of Cuba, and also the Berlin Wall === |
| | In the late 1950s, communism spread to a country only 90 miles from Florida: Cuba, where we still hold a military base as an artifact of the Spanish-American war under President McKinley. Recall that America gave Cuba freedom from Spain, but in 1959 the communists moved in with a revolution led by Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union communist dictator Nikita Khrushchev threatened to drop an atomic bomb on us if we intervened. Castro then ruled Cuba as a brutal dictator for more than four decades, imprisoning or killing those who disagree with him. | | In the late 1950s, communism spread to a country only 90 miles from Florida: Cuba, where we still hold a military base as an artifact of the Spanish-American war under President McKinley. Recall that America gave Cuba freedom from Spain, but in 1959 the communists moved in with a revolution led by Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union communist dictator Nikita Khrushchev threatened to drop an atomic bomb on us if we intervened. Castro then ruled Cuba as a brutal dictator for more than four decades, imprisoning or killing those who disagree with him. |