USA all the way!

America the beautiful, Stars and Stripes forever, I'm proud to be an American. Those are just a few popular songs that American musicians have dedicated their time to show their nationalism toward USA. The Statue of Liberty, the Bald Eagle, the Liberty Bell, the US flag, Mount Rushmore are just some of the symbols of this amazing country. Who wouldn't want to be a part of this wonderful nation? Here we have democracy, you have rights and a say in how your country will be run. Doesn't everyone want that? We don't only try to make our country better but we also try to help others in order to make this world a better place. Our foreign policy is containment. We want to contain the bad communism inside those communist countries, so that we can spare those small countries the horror of trying to live in a communist world. We knew that we could not slip up on this task because the USA believed in the Domino effect and how if one more country became communist, all of the rest would come crashing down. In order to achieve these goals, the Truman Doctrine, Eisenhower Doctrine, and the Marshall plan were put into effect. So, the United States wanted to share the love and spread democracy.

Cold War today, is START the way?

Recently Obama signed an arms treaty with the Russian president. They called the treaty START, which stands for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. This treaty's goal was to reduce nuclear weapons between the two countries. They are trying not to continue with the destructive nature of the Cold War. This does send other messages to other nations though. It might say how nuclear power is too powerful for this world to use. We should not destroy each other. It is not right to kill other humans in such massive numbers then justify it by fighting for your country. I think that their goal was to try to eliminate nuclear power. Obama and the Russian president are working toward peace, and I think other nations look up to them because they are superpowers. This shows how there is still problems between the two countries but they are attempting at peace.

U-2 Woo Hoo!

There was even more tension in the sky. Eisenhower was sick of flying through the Soviet Union and always getting shot down, so he proposed "open skies." That was of course not accepted by Khrushchev. After that the CIA began having secretive flights over the U.S.S.R. They flew in such high altitude, Soviets' defense could not reach them. The U-2 took detailed pictures. Eisenhower discontinued the flights and Fancis Gary Powers was the last pilot. He was shot down and Khrushcev claimed he was captured and confessed everything. 38 years later, we finally realized he was lying. This war has led to sneaky, secretive tactics and in the end that added more tension.

Space Race

Sputnik-

There was tension in more than just military and political aspects during the Cold War. There was also competition in the space race. Sadly, the Soviets were first to launch "Sputnik" in the sky. It was a very big, new discovery for the world. Yes, it was a great contribution to the scientific world but it was a threat to everyone else. Now the Soviets had a big space machine that could go anywhere in the world! Americans felt like they had a giant target on their back. We felt we needed to step it up. So we improved our schools in science, math, and foreign language. Now, the war has moved to every aspect of our lives. It has created tension everywhere.