The
memories of WW2 were fresh in the minds of everyone. The U S
confrontation with the USSR that brought on the Berlin Airlift, and its
threat to world peace were of the gravest portent. The Korean 'police
action,' another product of confrontations between USSR/Communist
China and U S/NATO, was winding down. 'Viet Nam' was on the
horizon.
During much of the half-century post-WW2 Cold War era the US
depended mainly on its own economic, military, industrial and human
resources to defend its own far-flung interests. The international
competition for country and regional security resources to rebuild a
devastated Europe, and administer the lands of the former central powers,
created a massive arms race that affected the lives and destinies of people
everywhere.
In the late-40s/early-50s the US-USSR conflict of interests was at a
critical stage. Intercontinental nuclear-armed ballistic missiles were far
beyond drawing boards; their operational reach, capabilities, and effects
against civilian as well as military targets had been carefully estimated
and understood.
The US doubled the number of its Air Force groups to ninety-five, and
placed great importance on the Strategic Air Command (SAC).
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