Sputnik

Just like the 9/11 shook the world, the launch of the Soviet Sputnik into cosmos shook the world on October 4, 1957. On that day the Soviets launched the first artificial Sputnik into space. On April 12, 1961 Gagarin, the first man ever was sent to cosmos, further shaking the world. The era of human conquering of the outer space began... The launch of the Sputnik was done by the military and was directed by the great academician Sergei Korolyov.

The US was in flames. Eisenhower was under a siege to resign. The US politicians who were not taking the atomic bomb of the Soviets seriously now had to rethink and reconsider the Soviet potential for hegemony. This event marked a new era in the Cold War and influenced the US in further restructuring of its domestic policies to countermand these developments. John F. Kennedy was to set the goal for sending America to the Moon... It was also John F. Kennedy who was able to courageously stop the Soviets placing nuclear weapons in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis showcase was perhaps the closest that the world came to the nuclear war...

But looking back at these events, it is really instructive to learn how the great powers were able to influence and 'check and balance' each other by constant challenge... Challenge is good (as long as non-violent) because it makes one search inside and learn the truth... Unfortunately, the US as a superpower, while challenged in a major way by Islamic fundamentalists at 9/11, has not really searched inside and has not really learned the truth... It has been ignoring the rest of the world for more than a decade and has increasingly become isolated as a world leader... We are in need of new leadership that can indeed redefine and repaint the image of the US... Who can take up that enormous task? Will the American people choose the right person this time? Who is the right person when people have vastly different understandings about global leadership and foreign policy? When the general population is misinformed and not fully educated about issues driving this world...