In 1950, following the tragic years of the World War II when President Harry S. Truman was still in office, United States got involved in the Korean War siding with South Korea. The United States helped the South Koreans fight the Communist North Koreans with their allies including of China and the Soviet Union. General Douglas MacArthur was fired by President Truman, and in the end, North and South Korea signed a truce resulting in no specific winner.
Eventually President Eisenhower was elected, and the United States engaged itself in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. This cold war created heavy tension and aggression. There was a threat of massive retaliation, and this began the nuclear arms race. The United States created a H- Bomb in 1952, but not too long after, the Soviets created their own H- Bomb also. With this threat, American citizens began building “duck and cover” shelters for the fear of an attack, and schools began enforcing “duck and cover” drills in case of an emergency. The CIA was developed during the Cold War too.
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The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, and this was atrociously embarrassing for the United States. President Eisenhower refused to be showed up so he invested millions into NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration program. When the United States U2 planes flew over about Soviet Union to spy, many Americans were anxious because they feared it would only worsen the tension of the cold war. One of the U2 planes was shot down and captured. This is only increased the tension, and this incident became known as the U2