Deborah Cohn is provost professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose main areas of study are American studies (with transnational and hemispheric orientations), Latin American studies, cold war studies, and cultural diplomacy, among others.
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, on Oct. 4, 1957, it did more than spark fears about America’s ability to compete technologically. It also raised concerns that the U.S. had a shortage of Russian speakers capable of monitoring Soviet scientific and military activities. In 1958, the National Defense Education […]
