United States Continental Missile Defense,

Early Years 1945-1960

Missile Gap 1957-1961

1956

• The United States had U-2 planes fly over the Soviet Union to examine what the Soviets had.  Eisenhower recognized that the missile gap with the Soviet Union was in fact false but he knew he couldn't disclose this information or else his operation on spying on the Soviets would put the United States into a lot of danger.

1957

October 4, 1957 - The Soviets launched Sputnik 1 up into outer space.  This would be the first satellite to be sent up into outer space.  When the United States heard about the Soviet Union launching a satellite, the U.S. started worrying about the Soviets getting an advantage on spying on the U.S. territory.

• This was the beginning of the space race and also sparked off the beginning of the arms race.  Launching the Sputnik 1 satellite out of the Earth's atmosphere, demonstrates that missiles would be an effective way in using nuclear power.

1960

• The beginning of John F. Kennedy's Presidential Election Campaign.  His main objective is to attack the republicans for being complacent about the Soviet's ICBM's.
• John Kennedy would tell the people that the United States had fewer missiles then the Soviet Union and that there was a big missile gap between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• Kennedy had to know that what he was telling the people was all a lie but he carried it on to scare the people about the past presidency and to look at Kennedy as a person who would solve the issue between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• Missiles had been built since WWI, but the United States and the Soviet Union realized that it was a better Idea to carry nuclear power by a missile instead of a bomb that was dropped out of a plane.
• Nikita Kruschev and other Soviet leaders, realized the false information that the Kennedy was giving to the U.S.  They saw Kennedy as an extremist who was trying to have the United States come together and fight back if there were any attacks by the Soviet Union.

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By

DoniloHarmon and Michael Shepherd