This was an interesting read into the specifics of the Cold War, a topic in which many people don't know many details about.
First and foremost citations are needed for this article because it is a historical event. That being said, it shouldn't be too difficult to find these citations. Watch out for puffery like when you write "The United States was the dominant world power"... dominant world power according to who? I'm sure the USSR thought they were a dominant world power.
A common problem I saw was what is called a "naked this". When you write "This essentially gave the Soviets two propoganda victories at once"...what is "this" referring to? If you had instead written "(Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) essentially gave the Soviets two propoganda victories at once" it is a much clearer sentence. Also avoid words like propaganda as it is considered a contentious label.
Again with the phrase "to undermine the media hysteria" is a type of contentious labeling as hysteria is never considered a particularly good thing.
The whole section on political and media reaction should be removed because it sounds very biased and opinion-based..."Politicians used the event to bolster their ratings in polls. hnu The media contributed to the public opinion, fear, and panic" this is a mixture of contentious labeling, unsupported attributions, and expressions of doubt.
Start a discussion about improving the User:GraphiteDirigible/sandbox page
Talk pages are where people discuss how to make content on Wikipedia the best that it can be. You can use this page to start a discussion with others about how to improve the "User:GraphiteDirigible/sandbox" page.