During the Cold War, the U.S pushed forth efforts of increasing defense and military buildup. One way of doing so was by creating the Minutemen Missiles in South Dakota. 150 Minuteman Missiles, containing a 1.2 megaton nuclear warhead in each missile. The ICBMs raised concern for the Soviets, a concern that they could not afford to look past. This can be considered an example of the Cold War economy for the U.S, because of the significant advantage the U.S had over the soviet union when it came to the amount of available spending, making it difficult for the Soviets to finance a war. That’s why it was a problem for the soviets when word about the missiles in South Dakota surfaced. “The underground silo theory alone would force an aggressor to expend more missiles than he could afford just to have a reasonable chance of hitting the stationary sites”(Heefner) Although The missiles caused extra spending for the soviets in order to keep up in the nuclear arms race, It was a concern in America that we might have been putting too much spending towards military defense systems and not enough to other important areas such as education and public welfare. This is what Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. Eisenhower was concerned about the combined power of the military and defense contractors having too much influence over government policy, potentially leading to unnecessary military spending and influencing national priorities. To sum it up, the Minutemen missiles were a clear example of how the Cold War economy functioned in the U.S. fueled by a combination of defense spending, technological innovation, and economic leverage over the Soviet Union, which led to domestic concerns about whether that was the right way to spend out money, or if there were better ways.
I believe that there are a couple of reasons why a silo was preserved as a national historic site with the National Park Service. One of which being the historical significance of the silos. They played a key part in the nuclear arms race and the nuclear deterrence efforts by creating fear of nuclear conflict. As we see today there is still a major fear in nuclear conflict, and the Minutemen missiles played a crucial role in that. It also serves educational purposes to be able to show people what strategies and weapons were used in a key part of U.S history today. The missile silos are also representative of the military-industrial complex that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about. The preservation of these sites acknowledges the economic, political, and social forces that shaped the Cold War era. The military buildup had wide-reaching impacts on U.S. policy and priorities, and the preservation of the silos can be seen as a way to analyze the complex relationship between defense spending, technological innovation, and public welfare during this time.
Will Wright 