Kyle Fluck The Cold WarThe Cold war was fought between Russia and its Satellite states (small independent state) and also Russia against the Western Powers, majorly the U.S.

The Cold war spawned from political conflict, military tension, propaganda warfare, and economic competition after WWII.

Politics On both sides it is was the Soviet Union

trying to expand its reign of communism and the U.S. trying to contain it.

The U.S. believed that if Western Europe was strong it would stop the spread of communism. So the U.S. put together the Marshall Plan to provide western Europe with economic aid to help its fight against Russia and communism.

A quote by Thomas Jefferson 20 years before the Cold war really showed what the goal of America was “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience To God.”

SPACE

RACE

The Space Age dawned on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into orbit around the earth. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite around earth. (Sputnik is a Russian word meaning "traveler.") Until this point, it had been assumed that the first satellite would be American, not Russian.

To respond to the budding Soviet space program, President Eisenhower turned to a small scientific agency called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautic (NACA). This agency would later be legally changed to NASA.

Although the U.S. sent satellites into orbit after the Soviets did the Russians still had the lead which led to the creation of the Apollo Program for the U.S. Its goal was to be the first country to land a man on the moon.

The Apollo 11 mission was the first lunar landing, On July 16th 1969 the Apollo 11 craft launched and on July 20th Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon stating “One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind”.

Military TechnologyAt the beginning of the Cold War, the United States was able to keep peace because it was the only nation with a nuclear bomb. Although politicians were loath to use this weapon, they were not afraid to use it as a bargaining chip. The Soviet Union knew that any sign of aggression toward the United States or its allies would result in a nuclear bomb being dropped on one of its cities, a policy known as "first strike capability." But once the Soviets tested their own bomb in 1949, nuclear policy began changing.

Lockheed's SR-71 spy plane replaced the U-2. It was the most advanced of the military aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s, cruising at 85,000 feet and at more than three times the speed of sound.

By 1989 the Soviet Union’s power had begun to wane and its protective shield fell apart. Communist dictatorships all across Eastern Europe were toppled, until in 1991, the Communists even lost power in Russia. The vast arsenals the two countries had built began to be disassembled and in 1992, SAC, the mighty nuclear delivery command, was disestablished. After almost half a century, the nuclear threat that gripped the world was gone, without a single shot ever having been fired.