Fifty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth, bringing America to its knees in awe - then fear. Initially thrilling as a marvel of science, Sputnik was soon viewed by America a weapon of mass destruction.
Reviews
SPOILERS I never had much education about the Eisenhower years, now this documentary is complementing a book I'm reading, " The American Way of War" by Eugene Jarecki, the guy who did the film, "Why we Fight". Ike was a military man who tried to hold back the military, and apparently so was Kruschev, in some ways. Sputnik inspired awe, then fear and the arms race. But Ike tried to put a peaceful spin on it to the end. Also amazing, if I remember the film correctly, 1958 alone had hundreds of atomic tests by the US and the USSR! I had no idea there were so many. And seeing the strange, reluctant reliance on Werner Von Braun, and Von Braun's utterly cloudless, arrogant demeanor - what a complicated world this is, was and will always be.