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 pwerful than a simple A-bomb (about 20,000 tons of TNT effective) of the previous decade. There exists no effective defense against this new type of weapon so an ensuing domestic fear ran rampant in our communities.
In 1957, 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 military-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 (local temperatures greater than 950 degrees Fahrenheit and 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. One example might suffice.
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!