Browse Items (65 total)

Leathernecks take time out to inspect captured enemy equipment.

Image of a U2 research plane that was used during the Cold War
- Associated Press photograph.
- No. L6176.
- New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).

Exhausted Leathernecks of the 1st Marine Division stop for a brief rest during the bitter fighting at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea in December 1950.

This political cartoon from a St. Louis newspaper sums up America’s despair over the successful Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth. This cartoon alludes to the warming relations between the Soviet Union and India, a…

This man alludes to the Soviet rejection of Open Skies in 1955 and their advancement in missile development. This clip was made months after the Sputnik satellite launches when Americans were reeling from this apparent Cold War setback.

Within a month of the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite, Soviets launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2. This satellite had a dog named Laika onboard to test the effects of space on a living organism. At the time, Soviets reported that they…

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when he completed a 108-minute orbital flight. The Soviets used this success to their advantage, and Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity. The cartoonist reflects the…

Explorer I was launched on January 31, 1958, four months after the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite.

Following Yuri Gagarin’s successful orbit in 1961 and President John F. Kennedy’s ambitious plans for investment in space exploration, the American space program suffered a setback when the unmanned Centaur rocket exploded after takeoff on May 8,…

The original caption for this photograph reads: A Korean youth, Kim Pak Soon, is taught one of the fundamental lessons of baseball: "Get your glove up, and keep the fingers out of the way." His instructor is S/Sgt. James W. Black, Chicago, Ill.,…