Sputnik’s new ‘Pearl Harbor’ to many Americans

Russia’s superiority in rocketry means it can launch direct attacks on the United States with virtually impunity. America has already lost a war it has not yet fought. The Howl of Calamity cried out, “Woe!”

• Second type of response: the “armed” response. This took the form of calling on people to abandon their sinful ways and come back to life for the tremendous task before them. This was most graphically represented when

“I don’t care so much about the pile depth of a new broadloom rug, or the height of a new car’s tail fins, if this country and the free world survive.”

“rapid extinction”

And if this all sounds like the trope of a politician addressing a political rally, check out the dispassionate scientist’s injunction, Elmer J. Dr. Hutchinson.

He pointed out that US science is too focused on less important issues, such as how to raise children without “inhibiting individuality.” As long as science is hardly considered a religion, “our way of life is certainly doomed to rapid extinction.”

• Yet another interesting type of response seemed to summarize the rivalry between Russia and the US in the following sentence.

Russians may have satellites. But such wonders do not eat, wear, or house anyone. Most Russians are still undernourished, poorly clothed and poorly housed. In democracies like the United States, people determine project priorities and resource allocation. In the US, the priority is relatively low.

• Then there was the disappointing reaction. someone slipped A few boneheads in the Pentagon erased the chance. ”

Dr. IM Levitt, director of Philadelphia’s Fells Planetarium and cosmic authority, has adopted this policy. He said one of the Jupiter rockets, which in tests reached speeds of 15,000 miles and altitudes of 650 miles, could have enabled the Army to “achieve a satellite moon like Russia’s just by changing the angle of the fire.” .

• Fifth type of response: “Why are you surprised by Russia’s superiority in some scientific fields?” It has been known for some time that there are

Many of their advances are based on the work of scientists from other countries and on the work of scientists from the Tsarist era. America still excels in all of science.

• The above reasoning provided even greater comfort. Reports began to circulate that the US would soon launch a device that looked like a pearl on a pea (compared to Russian satellites).

The most amazing of these is the “rocket train,” which is said to have launched a 100,000 foot balloon 240,000 miles to the moon. This rocket train carries all sorts of recording equipment imaginable, including television cameras to send back pictures of the “backside” of the Moon, the side not yet visible to the human eye.

• The type of reaction worth identifying, perhaps because of its negative rather than positive character, emphasizes the satellite’s propaganda value against Russia.

The Russians would now have demonstrated to the irresponsible people of the world that the communist system is a system suitable for achievement. America will lose friends. Many of the world’s people will flock to enter the Russian camps. All that America has done and spent to make them stick to the West will be in vain. That’s a big loss.

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Those who seem to be most distressed by this loss seem unaware that the non-committal people watching satellites for reasons to commit to Russia are actually of little value to the West.

A final rubric about the US reaction to a Russian satellite was given by an American admiral who simply stated that he did not believe Russia actually did.

Overall, Sputnik, which the Russians call their own satellite, rather shook the United States.