The Space Race and Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM's)
In 1957 the Soviets launch the first Earth-orbiting satellite named Sputnik.
About the size of a basketball and only made beeps
People feared that atomic weapons would soon be delivered without airplanes
This gave the USSR an upper hand and they began to demand concesssions
ICBMs and Delivery Systems:
(ICBM) Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile
MIRVs (Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles)
Nuclear submarines
M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)
Pre-emptive Strike
SAC (Strategic Air Command) planes flying 24 hours a day
A Peaceful Coexistence:
Idea brought forth by Krushchev
Stated USSR wanted to peacefully compete with USA
USSR encouraged in their peaceful competition with their success in the space race.
1959 Sino-Soviet Split
More aggressive actions begin to be taken under the cover of this idea:
•Pressure to remove troops from Berlin, 1959
•Soviet influence in the Middle East
•Cuban Missile Crisis
The U-2 Incident, 1960:
USSR shoots down American spy plane known as a U-2 (Pilot Gary Powers taken prisoner)
High altitude planes had flown over Russia taking pictures for years
With introduction of Rocket missiles they were able to shoot one down
Russians walk out of a Summit conference in Paris
About the size of a basketball and only made beeps
People feared that atomic weapons would soon be delivered without airplanes
This gave the USSR an upper hand and they began to demand concesssions
ICBMs and Delivery Systems:
(ICBM) Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile
MIRVs (Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles)
Nuclear submarines
M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)
Pre-emptive Strike
SAC (Strategic Air Command) planes flying 24 hours a day
A Peaceful Coexistence:
Idea brought forth by Krushchev
Stated USSR wanted to peacefully compete with USA
USSR encouraged in their peaceful competition with their success in the space race.
1959 Sino-Soviet Split
More aggressive actions begin to be taken under the cover of this idea:
•Pressure to remove troops from Berlin, 1959
•Soviet influence in the Middle East
•Cuban Missile Crisis
The U-2 Incident, 1960:
USSR shoots down American spy plane known as a U-2 (Pilot Gary Powers taken prisoner)
High altitude planes had flown over Russia taking pictures for years
With introduction of Rocket missiles they were able to shoot one down
Russians walk out of a Summit conference in Paris