Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 1-4

3. The Origins of Nuclear Air Defense Arms

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 5-21

4. Robert Sprague’s “Adequate Defense”

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 23-40

5. Testing, Predelegating, and Announcing

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 41-64

6. Genie

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 65-94

7. Nike-Hercules

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 95-125

8. BOMARC and Falcon

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 127-150

9. Conclusion

   • Christopher J. Bright

   Pages 151-160

10. Back Matter

    Pages 161-280

    PDF

Thousands of nuclear antiaircraft arms were designed, tested and deployed in the United States during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. These Army "Nike-Hercules" missiles, Air Force "Genie" rockets, and "BOMARC" and "Falcon" missiles were meant to counter a raid by attacking Soviet bombers. U.S. policy makers believed that the American weapons could safely compensate for technological limitations which otherwise made it difficult to destroy high flying, fast moving airplanes. Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era traces this armament from conception through deployment. Bright recounts official actions, doctrinal decisions, and public policies. It also discusses the widespread acceptance of these weapons by the American public, a result of being touted in news releases, featured in films and television episodes, and disseminated throughout society as a whole.

• administration
• air defense
• Cold War
• nuclear
• science and technology
• technology
• testing
• war
• weapons

'Bright's account is clearly written and is thoroughly researched in all available declassified sources.it is a very sound piece of work and fills a noticeable gap in the literature on continental defense.' The Journal of Military History

"This pathbreaking book explores a neglected aspect of US nuclear history, as the Eisenhower administration deployed thousands of nuclear-armed planes and missiles around the nation's air bases and urban centers. Christopher J. Bright's welcome study illuminates how presidential decision-making, corporate interests, inter-service rivalries, think-tank calculations, and even popular-culture productions profoundly influenced American life in the fear-gripped early Atomic Age." - Paul S. Boyer, author of By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age

"Christopher J. Bright has written an important book that fills in lost chapters of the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. His extensive research and clear writing focus on antiaircraft nuclear weapons, the defensive mission which is less known than the offensive ballistic missiles and bombers which were so prominent during the Cold War." - Robert S. Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, The Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man

CHRISTOPHER J. BRIGHT is an independent scholar of twentieth-century American political and diplomatic history.

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