Eisenhower is Elected
General Dwight D. Eisenhower became president after Truman. He was a great general that led the attack on Normandy in WWII. He is one of the few people that have been elected president after having been a military personnel. It is likely that he was voted for because the people were still scared of communism and he made promises to not let up pressure on the USSR. Because of his focus on the war however, he was not extremely involved in civil matters within the U.S.
During his presidency, he also made the CIA and NASA. NASA was made to make weapons and work on ideas for space exploration, and the CIA was made to gather intelligence. |
Val Peterson
In 1953, Jospeh Stalin died. Because of this, people were hoping that the word would slowly come to an end and that there would be a communist revolt in the USSR that would overthrow the government. There was no such revolt.
In 1953, Val Peterson went on television to address the state of the cold war. People were hoping that he would talk down the hydrogen bomb to make it sound like it was less destructive than it really was. He did the exact opposite of that and told the people, "I'm sorry to have to tell you that the military will tell you that as of today, they cannot stop a successful Russian attack." Because of his showing on television, the people began to get very worried. He rightfully informed the people that if the Soviets had a successful attack, there was nothing that could be done to stop it. He also told people that the USSR had made and tested their own hydrogen bomb, which showed that the cold war was really just starting. |