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 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 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.
Civil Defense in Our Everyday Lives
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 the government’s 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. In the mid-1950s, there was even a trend toward the “family fallout shelter” as an indispensable addition to any family residence.
Ordinary people like you and me were visibly concerned since very few people in the so-called “Fabulous Fifties” had a “private safe place” in a basement to hide and to store an adequate supply of daily necessities such as: several weeks of clean non-polluted air, safe water, foods, medicines, clothing, etc. Also, the American public was clearly getting fed up with all the drills that it was expected to follow without questions. As a consequence, a protest movement was organized in New York City to challenge the municipal authority’s rules and regulations during a test drill. Some citizens were clearly not happy with all these preparatory drills.
Time to Enjoy TV like Wyatt Earp and Dragnet in the 1950s
Of course, Americans were not sitting dejectedly aside by their radios and TV sets as the Washington-Moscow projected episodes of oncoming disaster darkened our skies. Denial is a time-proven, psychological method of dealing with bad news and, fortunately, the early days of television helped to elevate our spirits to numbing new heights. We had the Arthur Godfrey Show, Wyatt Earp TV episodes and the disheartening exploits of our own Boston Red Sox to calm our nerves. Of course, television adventures like these cited above only partly quenched our thirst for true emotional content, which, happily, Milton Berle fulfilled for us on a weekly basis for nearly a decade. Urban life in Spindle City remained, it seemed, untouched by frightening, international angst.
Hometown Denial
When it came to all-out denial, my hometown of Lowell, MA, got very high grades, indeed. In the case of a nuclear conflict with the Russians, we might possibly all huddle together in Donald Bergeron’s large cellar, near the coal bin, and hope/pray for the best outcome possible. This rather simple plan left some critics to claims of social and urban irresponsibility.
It is curious that although every American alive in 1957 had seen those tragic photos of what remained standing in Nagasaki after the US had dropped a second nuclear device on that city on August 9, 1945, that we, simple-minded citizens, in Lowell-town were still holding onto images of bomb damage going back to the early days of the First World War. But, good, old-fashion ignorance calmed our collective nerves. Yet, President Eisenhower seemed intent upon scarring the bejeebers out of us with all those nuclear test alerts with those darn blaring sirens.
Back to Eisenhower’s Challenges and Sputnik
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.
Clearly, the Soviet Union’s scientists and technicians had managed to shame the United States in front of the whole world with this rather outstanding feat of placing a man-made satellite in an elliptical orbit many miles high over our heads. How could a country of former land peasants during the Lenin-Stalin years , manage to propel itself into world dominance of outer space R&D? What were the Russians doing right in the areas of technological advancement that landed the Soviets in first place in this competition? Also, could they possibly mount a thermonuclear device (an H-bomb) in a similar capsule like the one that had carried Sputnik’s beeping, clear and cheerful signal to mankind? This existential dilemma challenged the very fabric of our society.
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, especially, in technical matters. 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 ironic!
Evaluation of the Soviet Educational System – Russian and US Appraisals
It was in 1957, after the Sputnik surprise, that US educators at all levels were tasked by Congress with determining the merits of the Soviet educational system. That system can be analyzed from a Russian and an American point of view. Final conclusions still remain open depending on the ideological viewpoints of the judges, but for the sake of completeness the results are given below:
2) Some Aspects of Soviet Education
MY Career Choices at U-Mass-Lowell, LTI, in the Fall of 1957
Being in the right place at the right time is most fortuitous for anyone seeking a long-term, meaningful career. That scholarship, which Dean Ivers provided me for all my previous, good work in science and math in high school, opened up a challenging academic highway for me and an exciting entry into a lifetime of R&D.
Sometimes, in life, a curious happenstance is placed directly in your path, which appears exciting but, also, quite challenging. If you come from a typical, Franco-Canadian family group, which was the case for me, you may even feel unworthy to handle the task. Years of living among many other poorly educated and often destitute immigrants and their descendants (of every ethnic variety) may have left you with the embarrassing belief that you simply cannot ever hope of getting out of your cultural dilemma. You may be convinced that the French proverb: “La vie ne fait pas de cadeaux“ applies to you, in particular.
This bit of Gallic negativity (see below) needs to be your first challenge into getting accepted into the big leagues of American life. Recall that our French brothers and sisters over the many centuries – it started in 475 A.D. – apparently encountered various disappointments, which may have dampened their enthusiasm in seeing ” life as a sunny day at the beach“. Local troubadours of the period often had a philosophical bent in bringing song and wisdom to the townspeople, who were barely eking out a living in tawdry, communal farms where sharing one’s living space with cattle, pigs, ducks and chickens was the accepted norm. So to quell any sudden outburst of peasant hope and joy, these troubadour-philosophers instilled in their audience an admonition that daily life can be difficult and less than joyful. The message that: “La vie ne fait pas de cadeaux” was a way to hedge their bets. “Life does not make any gifts” says that you must not expect too much and that the world is a place for rough sledding down cobblestone streets. But no! Your job is to accept this unexpected opportunity as a gift from society for you to do the best you can to overcome the limiting, ghetto experiences of your past! ……………Accept the gift and run with it!