Integrated Circuit Era (1959 — 1975), The

The Kennedy–Nixon Presidential campaign of 1960 brought forth an unlikely issue: American science and technology. The Russians had beaten the United States to space with their Sputnik satellite, and many felt the Russians had even more guided missiles than did the U.S. The years ahead would show the "missile gap" to be illusory, though the arms race would continue. By the end of the decade, American astronaut Neil Armstrong had set foot on the moon, a staggering achievement made possible by breakthroughs in electronics and other fields throughout the sixties. In fact, the next 15 years would teem with great discoveries in fields as diverse as microelectronics and microbiology.