Research Proposal on "Sputnik the Shock of the Century"

Research Proposal 12 pages (3596 words) Sources: 5 Style: Chicago

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century

It was one of the most expensive and tense competitions in the history of the world. Government figures were made on the promise of its outcome, or their dedication to their sides advancements. Trillions of dollars and thousands of men and women would become involved over the course of several decades, and the definition of victory in the competition, which was murky from the outset, became harder and harder to discern until it was ultimately acknowledged to be completely elusive. This race eclipsed anything that ever occurred in the Olympics, either in ancient or in modern times. It was bigger than the Superbowl, bigger than the World Cup or the World Series -- bigger, in both the figurative and literal sense -- than the world itself. The Space Race occupied the majority of the latter-half of the twentieth century; emblematic of the Cold War and United States and Soviet tensions, the technological advances made during the age had direct philosophical and practical implications that forever changed the way the world is perceived and works. In his book Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, Paul Dickson does an excellent job of capturing the event that marked the true beginning of the Space Race: the successful Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first ever man-made satellite to be placed into orbit around the Earth. In an informative yet eminently engaging narrative style, Dickson records both the science and the popular and political sentiments that led to and emanated from this historic event.

Though Dickson dips back into the nineteenth century to explain the history of rocketry and the space age, his book begins where the title demands it must: on October 4, 1957, what Dickson dubs "Sputnik Night." To illustrate the importance of the successful orbit and radio transmission of the Soviet satellite, he quickly lists some of the other news stories that Sputnik eclipsed: the ongoing racial tensions at Central High School in Little Rock, the current World Series between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers, Jimmy Hoffa's unsurprising election as president of the Teamsters, and a flu epidemic all gave way to the announcement of Sputnik, and the radio rebroadcast of its steady "deep beep-beep." An international convention of scientists was going on that evening in the Soviet Embassy in Washington, and the room erupted in joyful and un-jealous jubilation from all attendants. In fact, both the United States and the Soviet Union had released separate statements over the preceding year that they would each be launching satellites into orbit as part of the International Geophysical Year, a collaborative eighteen-month period of frenetic scientific inquiry which the Embassy gathering was devoted to. The scientific world had long been awaiting a successful satellite, and the matter of who got there first did not seem to matter.

The same was true, at the very outset, in both the public and political spheres, as well. Amateur radio enthusiasts were enlisted by the American members of the International Geophysical Year conference to help track Sputnik by listening for its distinctive beep, which could be picked up with any basic equipment. It was excitement rather than the consternation of losing or the worry about Soviet advancements that was the initial reaction of the people, and to a large degree of the government. In fact, it was largely because Sputnik was so unsophisticated that worries did not mount in Washington -- all the satellite did was emit a steady beep. The successful launch and orbit of the satellite was celebrated, and little more was though of it through the weekend.

All of that was to change, however, when the weekend was done. Dickson dubs the start of the following week "Red Monday," and this marks the beginning of Sputnik's true ramifications. Though the fifties are often remembered as a calm era; one in which people generally prospered and grew content and happy with their new suburban lifestyles, Dickson reminds us that things were not really simple -- they never are, in fact. The FBI's crime statistics mark the first half of 1957 as having the highest crime rate on record up to that point. The worst flu epidemic to hits the country since World War I had just finished its peak at the time Sputnik was launched, and would kill seventy-thousand Americans before it was over, adding to the nation's level of anxiety, and the Soviets had announced the successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile -- also emerging technology at the time -- just six short weeks prior to their launch of Sputnik.

These events and situations created more national tensions than is often remembered, and though the initial reaction to Sputnik was excitement, worry quickly set in.

The government, with Dwight D. Eisenhower at its head, attempted to put on a clam face for the public, continuing to congratulate the Soviets on their accomplishment and reassuring the American public that Sputnik represented no danger and was not even as major scientific advancement as it appeared to be. Private fears among politicians and the public alike continued to grow, however, with many suspecting -- despite assurance from Soviet officials and scientists to the contrary -- that Sputnik was in fact a reconnaissance satellite, capable of monitoring activity on any patch of Earth it was flying over, and "guessing what the Russians would do next became something of a national obsession." The ability to put something into orbit did and does have very real military applications, as modern missile technologies and contemporary experimentation confirms. Since the close of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, the public on both sides of the Iron Curtain had been subjected to propaganda warning them of nuclear attacks, and those fears increased after the launch of Sputnik. These fears were compounded further by the fact that Sputnik passed directly over the United States four to six times every day in its elliptical ninety-six-minute orbit, providing a constant and eerily close reminder of the shadowy communist threat.

Fears were also contextualized in terms of the competitive nature of the Cold War and the now-attached Space Race. Again, this was seen in matters as simple as Sputnik's repeated passage overhead -- mainland United States airspace had never once been entered by an enemy aircraft; though coastal anti-aircraft installations were built, especially in the wake of Pearl Harbor, they were never used for the purpose of defending airspace as there had never been an airborne enemy to defend against. People quickly began to see Sputnik as a new kind of Soviet threat; one which tore at the very fabric of the United State's image of defensibility and superiority. The increasing fears caused by Sputnik's launch hit the stock market, too, which on October 21 of 1957 saw its biggest one-day drop in two years, worsening an already steep downward trend that had begun in the summer of that year. Economic concerns might have been among the reasons that Eisenhower and his administration reacted as calmly as they did regarding Sputnik; a stronger reaction might have induced an economic panic.

There were several responses to the growing fears and feelings of American misguidance or inadequacy. Eisenhower began a series of speeches to the public concerning developments n the American space program, but his calm veneer and stated informative purpose was easily seen through by the American public, and Eisenhower's addresses quickly became known derisively as the "chin-up talks," after a Herblock cartoon in the Washington Post. One such reaction, led by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, was a series of hearings held by the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee, which Johnson was director of at the time. These hearings seemed to be a largely political move on the part of Johnson, who in the words of White House insider Bryce N. Harlow "wanted to get in front of the space rush so that everybody would say, 'Oh, that's our leader.'" During the two months following the launch of Sputnik, the Subcommittee heard seventeen expert witnesses, on topics ranging from public opinion to scientific advancement to military applications and operations, all of it given in the tone of a warning about American standing vs. The Soviet Union. When deviation from this line of dire circumstances and the need for immediate action occurred, Johnson expressed his doubts in often cynical ways that purported to have the interests and welfare of the American people at heart, but which in reality were often pointed barbs at the Eisenhower and his administration's failure to keep up with the Soviets, as Johnson saw it, in the space race.

One of the central issues of the hearings, and of governmental and scientific squabbling in the wake of Sputnik, was the current position of United States rocket technology and space capabilities, including the oft-bemoaned fact that the United States Army had completed a successful launch of the Jupiter C. rocket on September 20, 1956, and that many top officials and scientists on the… READ MORE

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