The year, 1957, proved to be one of cautious excitement for me personally since it marked the start of my academic training in science and math at the Lowell Technological Institute, LTI. However, there clung above our heads a general anxiety with a growing awareness in the press that the US-Russia socioeconomic divide with its propaganda-rich rhetoric might eventually lead to open hostilities between these two nations. It was almost palpable in our daily lives.
Fear, Distrust and Impending Doom reigned in the Daily Radio/TV Broadcasts
TV newsreels and theater news bulletins regularly made us all aware of the brutal repression imposed on Eastern European nations such as Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia plus also on the citizens of East Germany through the political, military and economic efforts of the Politburo in Moscow. The shocking excitement of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 was brought to all American TV screens in brilliant color. Also, the Berlin Airlift AKA Berlin Blockade of 1948 had previously seriously damaged any notion in the Washington that a peaceful cooperation between East and West after the fall of Nazi Germany might soon lead to a workable entente across blatantly differing world ideologies, i.e. Western-style capitalism and Russian-style communism.
For years already, Civil Defense, CD, radio and TV alerts had been reminding the typical American be that a child, a teenager, and adult parent or teacher plus all those retired individuals that the United States was in a long-term Cold War with Russia and its Soviet allies. Alarming public alerts formulated under the aegis of Civil Defense authorities regularly focused public attention on the imminent dangers around the potential Soviet use of nuclear weapons delivered to our cities and towns through military aircraft.
Both Russia and the United States had already set up Civil Defense centers as emergency points of shelter in communities deemed as potential targets designated by an enemy agency. Fallout shelters were being constructed to save the lives of critical personnel in maintaining some governmental order. Ordinary people like you and me were visibly concerned as evidence by the ample amount of gallows humor presented by media sponsors at the time.
After four years of governance, the Eisenhower Administration found itself bombarded with scientific and military challenges that, in effect, required a bipartisan solution on a grand scale. The “Sputnik moment” of October 4, 1957, became a “national wake-up call” to our countrymen that America’s long days of basking in the glory of winning World War II followed by our attempt to bring democratic governments to the world’s many countries needed some serious and immediate reevaluation.
American versus Soviet Educational Systems
Clearly, the Russian educational system had made excellent progress after WWII in teaching the basic sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology and advanced mathematics to a wide range of their student population – of all ages, it seemed – while also providing these young people with basic skills in practical engineering projects. See film entitled: “Comrade Student” – Soviet School System. Suddenly, the American educational system found itself needing to “catch up” with the apparent sophistication and excellence of a Soviet style of learning. Curiously, when viewed from present-day educational requirements, a good, preparatory system of teaching needed a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM courses. Curious, but also amusing!
H-Bombs over Our Skies from Maine to California?
These were very dangerous times and caution was the watchword of the day. In 1953, Russia had successfully exploded its first thermonuclear device (an H-bomb) to the great concern of our folks in the Pentagon. Such a device is about one thousand times more deadly than a simple A-bomb (about 20,000 tons of TNT effective) of the previous decade. There exists no effective defense against this weapon so an ensuing domestic fear ran rampant in our communities.
Newspapers, magazines, radio commentaries and TV programming all brought the message home. Maybe, our international political position as “top dog” in the space race was being seriously challenged by a Soviet contender? How could this be? Soviet Russia could not produce televisions, automobiles, refrigerators or even a toaster half as attractive and dependable as products from RCA, General Motors, Sears and Roebuck or Brand X!
Their sudden success in outer space was quite confusing for the American taxpayers. Where had we failed ourselves as a country and the free world in this psychological contest with the Russian Empire?
There existed in the minds of many a foreboding realization that East versus West differences could readily devolve into a thermonuclear exchange of warheads each carrying 10 to 20 megatons (millions of tons) of high explosives (equivalent) into the other fellow’s backyard.
No city in the world, including New York City, could withstand and remain even marginally functional after being hit with the destructive forces (temperatures greater than 950 degrees Fahrenheit and local winds of ~ 1000 miles/hour) induced by these weapons. It seemed like man’s technology had finally reached a doomsday scenario. How does any government provide its citizens with basic safety and survival under conditions that have never before been reached in all of human history?
An American ICBM, Fallout Shelters and Eisenhower Administration
Both Russia and the United States had already set up Civil Defense centers as emergency points of shelter in communities deemed as potential targets designated by an enemy agency. Fallout shelters were being constructed to save the lives of critical personnel in maintaining some governmental order. Ordinary people like you and me were visibly concerned as evidence by the ample amount of gallows humor presented by media sponsors at the time.
After four years of governance, the Eisenhower Administration found itself bombarded with scientific and military challenges that, in effect, required a bipartisan solution on a grand scale. The “Sputnik moment” of October 4, 1957, became a “national wake-up call” to our countrymen that America’s long days of basking in the glory of winning World War II followed by our attempt to bring democratic governments to the world’s many countries needed some serious and immediate reevaluation.
It was soon after our Sputnik Moment in 1957 that the U.S. Air Force ICBM Development Program Command had under its direction several major contractors, hundreds of minor contractors plus thousands of specialty parts vendors working across the United States in a full-scale effort to guard our citizens against any surprise nuclear attack on our country.
However, our military leaders had been keeping a sharp eye, all along, on the development of ICBMs of the Soviet variety over the years, so it came as no surprise to them when the information contained in the following “then SECRET” video called “Development of Soviet Missile Threat (1960)” was made manifest.
Russian Educational System: Like STEM today but Decades Earlier
Clearly, the Russian educational system had made excellent progress after WWII in teaching the basic sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology and advanced mathematics to a wide range of their student population – of all ages, it seemed – while also providing these young people with basic skills in practical engineering projects. See film entitled: “Comrade Student” – Soviet School System. Suddenly, the American educational system found itself needing to “catch up” with the apparent sophistication and excellence of a Soviet style of learning. Curiously, when viewed from present-day educational requirements, a good, preparatory system of teaching needed a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM courses. Curious, but also amusing!