The Pride of Two Nations in Defiance

History 1700, Sec 63

Sean Ross

4/21/2014

In 1957 a new enemy rose to take control from above. Russia launched the first manmade object
into space raising concerns about what this recent enemy from World War Two was going to do next with
its new abilities. The US population worried about possible nuclear attacks from space, and coded
messages from this estranged moon orbiting the earth. The president during that year had avoided
mentioning the launch to the public 1. The fears of the Nations people were perpetuated by the
propaganda released. Focusing on propaganda and how these fears were expressed we can see how the
Americans did not want to lose the title of most technologically advanced and that as a nation they
focused on technology and not pride.
Views of the satellite in its homeland were very different from those in the US and expectedly so,
the Russians, of course, were proud of their accomplishment. In Russia the information that was
circulated about their satellite was much different than the type of information the US wanted to circulate.
The Russians showed their people images of victory for the common man such as in the Soviet man, be
proud, you opened the road to stars from Earth! poster and in their writing. While the US spoke of the
defeat of the most technologically advanced nation in the CBS broadcast A special report on Sputnik 2.
The propaganda in Russia about Little Moon was nationalistic in nature and not based on technological
advances as it was in the US, this shows a different focus from the American public to the Russian public.
One of the ways we can tell that the president was afraid to spread fears of Sputnik is by looking
at both his Radio and TV speeches and his conferences with the secretary of defense. In President
Eisenhowers speech to the public he focuses on the security of our nation talking about the rising costs of
missiles and the importance of science in our education. He not only never mentions the name Sputnik
but the whole speech is centered around science and rockets but makes no mention of ships, tanks, and
rifles; all of which are the prominent military supplies that were used in the Korean war earlier in the
Esienhower, Dwight. "Radio and Television Address to the American People on "Our Future Security"." Public
Speech, 1957.
2
Wiliams, Jordan. "Soviet Fires Earth Satellite; It Is Circling the Globe at 18,000 M.P.H; Sphere Tracked in 4
Crossings Over U.S." New York Times, October 5, 1957
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Fifties. This suggests he is focused on space and that the Russians finished the Sputnik project months
before the estimated launch of the Vanguard. His disappointment on the slower efforts of the American
scientists can be seen in his meeting with Secretary Quarles were he first brings up a report that mentions
the Redstone could have been used to put a satellite into orbit many months ago 3. The fact that
Eisenhower does not directly mention the successful Soviet launch in public but focused on space and
getting a satellite into orbit in his conferences suggest that he feared undermining the technical status of
the United States in the eyes of its people.
The Russian Publications during this time suggested that the people of Russia admired and adored
the small craft. In a local newspaper Journalist Tsovinskii took headlines from across the globe of what
others thought of Sputnik. His choices in quotes using only the ones congratulating the USSR and ones
about how amazing of an accomplishment the launch was shows his pride in the launch and that the rest
of the world should be amazed. The name, Sputnik, meaning baby moon, was affectionately referred to as
Little Moon in this short article. Although nowhere in the text does he directly put down or undermine the
US, his comics adorning the sides of this article suggest otherwise. One comic is of an American banker
with a slingshot attempting to shoot down the moon. The moon is to represent Sputnik and the slingshot
suggests the impossibility of the American being successful. Russian publicist focused on the feeling of
nationalism by promoting the success of the satellite.
The American news outlets focused more on the statistics of Sputnik such as its weight and
distance from the earth. In a CBS news report several correspondents asked questions of a couple
American scientists. The article also reported the short wave radio frequency that one may listen to
Sputnik on, this spurred a notion that Sputnik may be some sort of a spy craft. The questions were mostly
about how the future US launch would work and what Sputnik meant for the world of science. The article
in the New York Times focused on the distance from Sputnik to the earth and the speed at which it was
Goodpaster, A. J. "Memorandum of Conference with President Eisenhower on October 8, 1957." Memorandum,
1957.

traveling, this suggests we, as Americans, are more interested by the numbers than the thoughts of other
nations. The facts that we focused on show how much we care for technology.
Russian posters were distributed shortly after the successful launch of Sputnik. One such poster
shows a hand gesturing towards a rocket in the sky and with the phrase Soviet man, be proud, you
opened the road to stars from Earth! Even the colors of the poster suggest nationalism by only using the
colors from the soviet insignia, orange and red, they invoke the feeling that the successful launch was
only possible under the soviet regime. This poster suggests that the Russians should all be proud of what
they were able to accomplish. The lettering on the craft suggests the power of the Russian government in
their victory. They wanted to spread pride and nationalism in the accomplishment without relinquishing
the power to the people.
Through watching and reading both the newspaper articles and news programs from the day after
the launch, we can see that the US was focused on the technical aspects of space flight. Such as in the
CBS Special news report on Sputnik program Douglas Howard states that the underdeveloped countries
in the Middle East and Africa will now look up to the Soviets for Beating the Most Technologically
advanced country to space having been underdeveloped themselves 4. This statement and others point to
the feeling that we are superior in science despite the lack of college graduates per capita at the time we
thought of ourselves as more advanced than any other country. In the New York Times the article
SOVIET FIRES SATELLITE INTO SPACE: IT IS CIRCLING THE GLOBE AT 18,000 M.P.H.;
SPHERE TRACKED IN 4 CROSSINGS OVER U.S. even the title focuses on the stats of the satellite
rather than pride or defeat 5.
Although the president did not mention the launch in his speech to the public, he focused much of
his speech on science as a form of national defense. This suggests that Space meant a great deal to the
CBS Presents a Special Report on Sputnik 1. Produced by CBS News. Performed by Howard Duglas. 1957.
Wiliams, Jordan. "Soviet Fires Earth Satellite; It Is Circling the Globe at 18,000 M.P.H; Sphere Tracked in 4
Crossings Over U.S." New York Times, October 5, 1957.

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President and the nation; it also shows that the government had fears about how the satellite from Russia
was going to be used and what they may do next. Looking at a conference the president had with the
secretary of defense we can see that they were focused on the satellite. In this conference the president
asks what congress will say when they find out we could have produced a successful launch had we made
a military effort, and they even mention in passing that they could have accepted an earlier proposal from
the Russians to place US probes on Sputnik 6. The fact that we did not accept this proposal means we did
not want to release our superior technology to the Russians.
Based on the visual propaganda in Russia we can tell that Pride and victory is the main focus of
the Russians. In the Poster mentioned earlier the phrase shows much of the pride and suggests it is all
thanks to the working man. Even though they appear to be giving the credit to the everyday soviet the
Russians kept the information of when launches were scheduled until the launch was successful. In the
poster the rocket is bearing the CCCP logo standing for the soviet government and suggests that though
they wanted the working man to be proud they were also boasting their success. In their written
publications they attempted to spread pride by showing the public that the world has admiration for the
Russians and by publishing a poem written by an unknown artist at the bottom of the article. The poem is
more of a love letter to Sputnik than anything else repeating lines of how mighty and high Sputnik flies
above us 7. These pieces of Russian propaganda show how the Russian government wanted its people to
focus on pride and nationalism.
Looking at the two publications mentioned in this report we can see that there were many
differences in what information was portrayed in the two countries. First of all looking back on the
Russian publication we see the pride in a poem and the quotes as well as the way they are boasting with
the comics along the side the comics point to Americans being inadequate in their attempts to launch a

Goodpaster, A. J. "Memorandum of Conference with President Eisenhower on October 8, 1957." Memorandum,

1957.
7
Tsinovskii, D. "What people say about Little Moon." Pioneer Truth, October 5, 1957.
6

satellite. And if we take a look at what is in bold in the New York Times article we see that it is mostly
just the numbers that are bolded. The New York times article states They refused several invitations to
give any details about their own problems in designing the satellite and gave even less information than
had been generally published about their work in the Soviet press. meaning our information is somehow
more adequate being technical in nature. 8 The Fact that the Russians barely mention the numbers but the
Americans cant stop talking about them shows that the Americans all focused on the Tech and the
Russians Focused on their Pride and accomplishments.
Now looking at all of these pieces of propaganda and news we can see the focus of these two
great nations. The articles are almost complete opposites of one another the US talking about numbers the
Russians showing national pride. The visual propaganda in Russia was almost overbearing in its notion of
Might as a nation. The most revealing propaganda would be the news articles and TV broadcast from
America they not only show that Americans are focused on technology but are afraid of being inferior to
another nation, beyond that a nation that we were recently at war with. And thus the space race was on to
put a man on the moon.

Wiliams, Jordan. "Soviet Fires Earth Satellite; It Is Circling the Globe at 18,000 M.P.H; Sphere Tracked in 4
Crossings Over U.S." New York Times, October 5, 1957.

Bibliography
CBS Presents a Special Report on Sputnik 1. Produced by CBS News. Performed by Howard Duglas. 1957.
Esienhower, Dwight. "Radio and Television Address to the American People on "Our Future Security"."
Public Speech, 1957.
Goodpaster, A. J. "Memorandum of Conference with President Eisenhower on October 8, 1957."
Memorandum, 1957.
Tsinovskii, D. "What people say about Little Moon." Pioneer Truth, October 5, 1957.
Wiliams, Jordan. "Soviet Fires Earth Satellite; It Is Circling the Globe at 18,000 M.P.H; Sphere Tracked in
4 Crossings Over U.S." New York Times, October 5, 1957.