Beep Heard Around the World
On Friday, October 4, 1957, the world discovered that the Soviet Union had launched an artificial satellite called Sputnik into outer space. ... It was also equipped with a transmitter that would beep in outer space to give the exact location on earth of where the satellite was located. The Russian scientists, however, were not the only ones who heard the beeps Sputnik gave off. Similar to the event at Lexington that started the Civil War, Sputnik created a chain of tumultuous events and gave off a beep heard around the world. ... The world view on Russia’s military power had changed significantly. ... Eisenhower could not even deny that fact, but does disagree that they were ahead in overall military power, “Although the Soviets are quiet likely ahead in some missile and special areas, and are obviously ahead of us in satellite development, as of today the over-all military strength of the free world is distinctly greater than that of the Communist countries.” The race started when the United States created the Atomic Bomb during World War II. ... Then, Sputnik came along showing the world that they had created something before the United States. ... There was the fear of the communist country of finding something supernatural and then using it to gain supremacy over the world. ... This propaganda would apply not only to the communist countries or the United States, but basically the whole world. ... Through all this propaganda, it was believed that Khrushchev was going to take over the world. ... With that mindset, it was easy for them to think that Sputnik was part of their plan to take over the world or for some other plan that was not peaceful.