(I'd recommend you watch it in fullscreen; and watch the whole thing too, almost sounds like music once the tests really get going)
The arms race between the USA and the USSR (with a few notable discoveries in Britain, France and Canada) gave humanity a lot of good stuff.
- Nuclear reactors (So what if they have a bad rap, they are the way of the future)
- A man on the moon (Nothing like the good ol' red menace to ignite public opinion)
- Nuclear physics (exotic atoms, big machines make things we can't see go really fast)
- Science fiction (VERY important, imagine if Asimov never got around to making up "robotics")
- Rockets (also fun, thanks von Braun)
- MAD (ensures that no nukes will ever be used in war again)
- A very good demonstration that communism doesn't work
Now, haters gonna hate, go ahead and list off some of the downsides. There was some loss of life, mainly in the Korean war. And all those spies, but hey, they never existed and were never here. Right?
"I'll trade ya 10 red spies for your 4 star-spangled spies."
"You have a deal, now we just need a long bridge covered in mist somewhere."
"That's too dramatic, lets just put them on planes and have them fly to the other country."
"Fine."
I've been watching the whole spy boondoggle in the USA pretty closely. Mostly just because I can't believe Tom Clancy had some of it right, but also because I am hoping for more Cold-war-style tension.
And perhaps some more breakthroughs.
