It was a rivalry between the Communist soviet union against the united states. It started in 1947, at the end of World War 2. The U.S and Soviets had many disagreements, and were in constant fear of the other ones dropping bombs on them or doing something bad.
The Cuban Missile crisis
Cuba sides with the Soviets, and they put missiles in Cuba to help protect Cuba. America is very close to Cuba so it intimidates America. It was Richard Nixon vs. John F. Kennedy, and the fear lasted for 13 days
The Bay of Pigs
Eisenhower signed off on 1,400 Cuban exiles in invade Cuba with the U.S help. April 1961 they trained to invade with U.S air strikes. They landed on Castro's private beach and the air strike was unsuccessful.
The Arms Race
The arms race is when the U.S and Soviet Union would keep building weapons and bombs to intimidate each other, and never actually fired anything. In this illustration, the 2 sides keep doing the same thing, intimidating each other. They have the "boys in the back", to keep building them weapons.
The H-Bomb
in 1950, Truman allows the H-Bomb to be created. The bomb was created by Edward Teller. It is a second generation nuclear weapon design, its also fusion weapon.
Sputnik
It was the 1st satellite to travel the globe, launched by the soviets. It traveled the globe in 96.2 minutes. It freaked Americans out because they didn't know if it could carry weapons or something.
The race to space
The soviet union was the first to release a man into space, his name was Yuri Gagarin. The U.S was quick to send someone up and his name was, Allen Shepard. Yuri went in April and Allen went in May.
Protection plan for Americans
They also called this "Duck and Cover",If a bomb comes, the Americans will be prepared. They just have to get somewhere safe, they know what to do. They just duck and cover their heads, they try and find a wall to get next to.
The T.V escape
Americans would watch T.V to get their minds off of what was going on in the crazy world. They would watch shows like, I love Lucy, to be a distraction. They also watched shows resembling a perfect American lifestyle.
The fear of Spies
People were scared that spies were giving away secrets of the "Bombs". They have to make sure everyone is behaving like an American. So they don't think they are doing anything suspicious.
