How The Cold War Changed The World

As World War II was ending and the Nazi threat was coming to an end and a new threat was emerging in the world. Communism was spreading and spearheading the movement was the Soviet Union. This was very worrisome for all who opposed communist rule. There were many events and spans of time that shaped the cold war and caused the United States and its allies to adapt. I chose three that really stuck out to me. I chose the Korean war, the red scare, and the space race. These were only three crises but they changed the landscape of the world greatly. After World War II ended the focus shifted to maintaining peace and through these goals the United Nations were formed. The UN was made with two parts, the General Assembly and the Security Council. The General Assembly included delegates from all the 50 nations present and meets annually while the Security Council is always in session and their main responsibility is to maintain international peace and security (Tindall 949-950). This was very important because it was …show more content…
One of the most important areas was the space race. It was started by the Soviets when the launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit on October 4, 1957 (The Space Race). The United States saw space as the next place that they would explore so they were hoping to beat the Soviets in their space capabilities. The Soviets had also developed the R-7 missile that some believed to be to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the United States (The Space Race). A year later the United States launched the Explorer I rocket which matched the Soviets. The same year President Eisenhower started up the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (The Space Race). He also created two space oriented programs. Their jobs were to find out about the military potential in space and to use orbiting satellites to spy on the Soviets (The Space