10. Cold War Rivalries 1955 - 1963
Khrushchev launched sputnik and stock piled
weapons to challenge Mao Zedong’s as the leader
of the communist world The U-2 Spy Plane The Hallstein Doctrine
Eisenhower supported the development of new Unauthorised 1955 Khrushchev recognised the
weapons in larger quantities and JFK continued reconnaissance flights GDR as an independent state.
many of his policies started in 1950 and it Stated that any nation other than
Only after the Cuban missile crisis did the countries could fly above radar USSR that recognised he GDR
begin to reconsider their nuclear policies
would be an unfriendly act
The nuclear arms race began with the successful
against the FRG
testing of USSR nuclear technology
The USA tested the H-bomb in 1954 which was
1500 times more powerful; than the Hiroshima
bomb
The USA soon had similar technology The space race, Sputnik and space flight
By 1948 he USA created he strategic air command The space race was a continuation of nuclear proliferation
with Curtis LeMay 4th October 1957 USSR launched first satellite into orbit called sputnik
Eisenhower commissioned the gather report to In November of the same year a dog named Laika was launched in a 10 day orbit in sputnik 2
uncover the state of the US-soviet missile gap an The USA felt that they were falling behind the USSR in the cold war technology as sputnik 2
nuclear capability made the USA believe that the USSR had the capability of launching missiles against them
The 1st ICBM was developed in 1957 Sputnik seemed to undermine massive retaliation and the Eisenhower administration was
The Gaither report suggested that the soviets were receiving more pressure from democrats to do more in this area
ahead In September 1958 the US government authorised $1 billion for technological developments in
Eisenhower used U2 spy planes to get a more this field
accurate representation 6th December 1957 a US navy rocket crashed on take-off giving the nickname “flopnik” this was a
In 1959 SLBM’s were created US vanguard navy rocket which crashed upon take off in cape Canaveral
In October 1959 the first satellite to successfully orbit the moon was launched and on the 12 th
April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first person to visit space
By 1962 the US had caught up having launched 63 missions to the USSR’s 15
In 1958 Eisenhower established NASA
The Soviet space programme was led by Sergei P