Category Archives: Week 2: Cold War Origins

The idea of domestic containment gained adherents during the 1950s for several reasons. The end of World War II brought about a desire for stability and normalcy after years of turmoil and uncertainty. The traditional nuclear family with a male breadwinner and female homemaker was seen as a way to achieve this stability and provideContinue reading “Week 5 Blog Post”

Before the 1950s the typical household always consisted of the working man and the stay-at-home housewife. This lifestyle was almost never questioned and the majority of the U.S. population lived by this. The husband left for work every morning and the wife was left to get the kids ready for school and do household choresContinue reading “The Fear of Being an Independent Woman”

Historically, precious few major developments in national history have happened in our humble state of South Dakota. The installation of Minuteman missiles, at least, brought us to the fore of the Cold War where before it was largely a mental exercise. The USSR was a big scary threat over there, but the presence of massiveContinue reading “SDICBMs”

During the early 1960s, the United States and Soviet Union were locked in an arms race to develop missiles capable of reaching either country in a matter of minutes. Known as Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBM’s for short. These missiles were strategically placed in silos the American midwest, specifically the states of North and SouthContinue reading “The Hidden Weapons of South Dakota”

The “military-industrial complex,” as Dwight Eisenhower called it, refers to an unnecessarily high amount of military spending to establish a large arms industry. Eisenhower was adamant that the U.S. needed to maintain a balance between defense spending and the needs of the economy. This was harder to do in practice. As the new president KennedyContinue reading “Who doesn’t want a missile in their backyard?”

                                                              Landon Thompson      The Minutemen Missiles in South Dakota are an example of the Cold War economy, that is, it was a part of the Military Industrial Complex due to the fact that the construction of these silos helped to spur the local South Dakota economy. This was due to the fact that more constructionContinue reading “Blog Post #3”

The Minutemen Missiles in South Dakota was an example of the Cold War economy of the two benefits it brought to the economy. The first benefit it brought to the economy was the jobs in western South Dakota. The second benefit was the building permits auctioned off for the building of the silos. The articleContinue reading “Missiles and Memory”

The Minutemen Missiles of South Dakota was an example of how careless the United States was with money during the cold war—the U.S. was so frightened by the possibility of being taken over by communism that they were doing anything they could to be “prepared”. President Dwight Eisenhower warned of this in his farewell address.Continue reading “The Waste of the Midwest.”

During the Cold War, the need for the development of Intercontinental ballistic missiles was very high. If nuclear war was to break out between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States needed to be ready to strike back right away. The United States created nuclear silos located in 7 different states: Montana,Continue reading “Week 4 Post”

During the early 1950s, the United States was in a fierce rivalry with the Soviet Union for global power. Both superpowers employed large amounts of espionage to gain intelligence. In America the fear of Soviets lurking amongst the American public became known as the Red Scare. Where thousands of innocent people were investigated by theContinue reading “The Lavender and Red Scare”