People became extremely paranoid because they believed they could be watched and that if something could be sent into space, a missile could be fired all the way to the US.
What was the major effect of Sputnik I on the United States?
Sputnik sparked accusations of American weakness, complacency, and a "missile gap," which resulted in the resignations of important military leaders and helped John F. Kennedy win the presidency by reinforcing the space gap and the role of the Eisenhower-Nixon administration in its creation. The Space Race, an American and Russian Cold War rivalry to lead space exploration, was sparked with the launch of Sputnik. The 1958 National Defense Education Act, or NDEA, increased funding for STEM education and made it a priority in schools as a result of the Space Race.
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