Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

"The Right Stuff" is a 1983 film about the astronauts who participated in Project Mercury. Project Mercury was the United States' attempt to send someone in space during the 1960's. This was because in 1957, the U.S.S.R. launched the satellite Sputnik. This started a competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. called the Space Race. For a large portion of the film, the Soviets were winning the competition while the U.S. still was not able to get a rocket to even launch. The Soviets already sent a rocket and a man to space. There was a funny scene in the film which showed many of the failed attempts of the U.S. launching a rocket.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an organization that includes Europe , Canada, and the United States. It was formed during the Cold War when there was a high amount of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This was an agreement that states that if one member was attacked then the other members would come to their aid. It was established when the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in April 4, 1948. The reason for forming this alliance was that the nations of Western Europe were too weak too after World War II and could not stand up to a Soviet invasion. They felt threatened by the expansion of communism throughout the world. The Warsaw Pact was an alliance formed by the Soviet Union and its satellite nations as a response to NATO. The Soviet Union kept military personnel in the satellite nations to make sure they stayed communist. They sometimes took military action against members of the Warsaw Pact such as Czechoslovakia and Hungary.