Something that was taking place at the same time as the story was the Cold War. The cold war was a different type of war one the likes of which the U.S. has never taken part in before. It was an arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The Cold war was a competition to see who could get the biggest guns the fastest, it was an intimidation thing. But it did spark off the space race, which was another race between the U.S. and the soviet union to see which would be the first nation to go into space, and make it to the moon. The soviets made it to space before we did by launching the satellite named Sputnik , but we did beat them to the moon The Cold War never actually came to conflict, which is why it is known as the cold war, but it did have some reaching effects in the U.S. Like when the Russians launched Sputnik we in the U.S. began to believe that we weren't as smart as they were so the result was harder courses for the schools in the U.S.