The Cold War Heats Up

Arms Race

• 1945 United States becomes the first country to use the atomic bomb – dropping it on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII

• 1949 Soviet A-bomb is tested in Siberia

• 1952 American Hydrogen bomb

• 1953 Soviet Hydrogen bomb

NSC-68

• January 1950 under President Truman

• Report suggested that the U.S. should begin a massive buildup of weapons to stay ahead of the Soviets

1953 – New Leaders, New Policy?

• Dwight Eisenhower – new U.S. President

• Stalin dies, replaced by Nikita Khrushchev

• Peaceful Coexistence U.S. and USSR can exist together without conflict

1953 – New Leaders, New Policy?

• “Open Skies” – Ike proposed that each country allow aerial photographs so each side could inspect the other’s military installations

• Khrushchev rejected this

• Ike began using the new U-2 spy planes

Sputnik (1957)

It’s the end of the world as we know it!!!

Space Race

• 1957 - Soviets launch first satellite into space - Sputnik I

• This satellite was launched by a intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – this could potentially carry a nuclear warhead to the U.S.

• U.S. puts money and resources into math and science education and schools

• Leads to the creation of NASA

Space Race

• 1958 - America follows - Explorer I

• 1961- Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes first person to orbit the earth

• 1962 - John Glenn becomes the 1st American to orbit the earth

• 1969 - America lands on the moon Apollo 11

It’s the end of the world as we know it!!!

How to survive a nuclear attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Satellites – No mo’ communism?

• How did the Soviets respond to the uprising in Hungary?

• How did the Soviets try to prevent people from escaping from East Berlin to West Berlin?

Fidel Castro

Let’s take him out

• La Brigada – anti-Castro Cubans trained by the CIA under Eisenhower

• Bay of Pigs Invasion – President Kennedy ordered La Brigada to land in Cuba and take out Castro (April 17, 1961)

• Complete failure – boats ran into coral reefs, Kennedy cancelled air support to keep U.S. involvement a secret, Castro’s forces captured and killed all of La Brigada

Cuban Missile Crisis

• October 14, 1962 – a U2 spy plane discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba

• World was on the brink of nuclear war for 13 days

It’s the end of the world as we know it!!!