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history.com HUAC (House Un-American Activities) begins holding meetings to show that Communist ideals are thriving in the US and need to be stopped. Thousands of people from Hollywood, state departments, federal employees, teachers and more lost their jobs.
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History.com" It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation…by outside pressures." --President Truman. This kind of thinking would influence American foreign policy for years to come.
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History.com The Soviet Union successfully detonates its first atomic bomb.
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Office of the HistorianThis was a top-secret document that pushed for the US to use military force in order to contain Communism and the Soviet threat.
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History.com War breaks out in Korea when the Soviet-backed North invades the South. It appears to Americans that this is another step in a Communist threat to take over the world.
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History.com The US successfully detonates its first hydrogen bomb named "Mike".
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history.com The Soviet Union successfully detonates its first hydrogen bomb, now matching the power of the US.
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history.com The Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite into orbit. They used an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile which also made Americans nervous; it could be launched into US airspace seemingly easily.
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NASA The Space Race begins when the US launches its own satellite to rival that of the Soviet Union. Eisenhower also launched NASA this year.
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history.com The Soviet Union launches the first man into space.
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WikipediaWikipedia Americans launch their first man into space.
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history.com JFK Announces Goal to Land Man on Moon
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history.com Richard Nixon takes office. He takes some important steps to establish diplomatic relations with communist places and takes steps to reduce the nuclear war threat.
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history.com Neil Armstrong becomes the first man on the moon. This event marks the end of the Space Race with the Soviet Union and made America the declared winner.
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history.com Ronald Reagan takes office. His policies are more akin to Nixon's in that he works for military involvement in subduing Communist governments.
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history.com wall article East and West Germany finally reunite about a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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History.com Soviet Union Article Gorbachev resigns after the dissolution of the Soviet Union