The United States in the Cold War: 1945 - 1989 by James Lincoln Collier

Author:James Lincoln Collier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: 2002-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Soviets scored a great propaganda success with the launching of their ICBM and soon after, Sputnik space satellite. They also were ahead of the Americans in putting a man into space. This illustration from the Soviet magazine Krokodil shows Yuri A. Gagarin, the space hero, being celebrated by Russian citizens. In fact, the Soviet lead in missiles was not nearly so great as Americans feared.

The arms race was truly on. Each side felt it had to keep up with the other in missiles. In the end, both nations would have enough missiles equipped with nuclear weapons to end life on this planet. Both Eisenhower and Khrushchev, no matter what they thought of each other, realized that neither country could start throwing nuclear weapons at the other without being sure of getting the same back. Technically, it was simply not possible for one side to take out all of the other's missiles in a surprise attack. The two camps had achieved "mutually assured destruction," or the "balance of terror," as some put it. In a nuclear war, both countries would be destroyed. The two leaders tried to be conciliatory, and in 1955 Khrushchev made a trip to the United States, where he visited Disneyland, but also had long serious talks with Eisenhower.

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