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Overtaking the Soviet Union: The Space Race and the Arms Race:
During the 1960 Presidential race, Kennedy had campaigned hard on the issue of American strength. The power and prestige of the United States was slipping, he had warned. The Soviet Union had surged ahead of the United States with spectacular achievements in space, and there was a debate within the US intelligence community and concern in Congress as to whether the Soviet Union held the advantage over the United States in strategic weapons. But by 1961, the United States had caught up to the Soviet Union in the space race, and intelligence revealed that it was the United States -- not the Soviet Union -- that held the advantage in the strategic arms race. |