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Ike's Missile Crisis 4/12/20198:1901 AM University of Washington Libraries Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services Box 352900 - Seattle, WA 98195-2900 (206) 543-1878 Document Delivery [email protected] w WAU 1 WAUWAS 1 RAPID:WAU Scan Seattle SCAN FOR COURSE INSTRUCTION ILLiad TN: 1747933 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 Location: Suzzallo and Allen Libraries Stacks Call #: E835 .H56 2018 Loansome Doc: Work Order Location: n 1111111111 Journal Title: The Age of Eisenhower Customer Reference: Volume: Billing Category: Issue: Chapter 15 Needed By: 10-10-2099 Month/Year: ,2018 Maximum Cost: Pages: 376-406 Article Author: Wiliam Hitchcock NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT Article Title: The document above is being supplied to you in accordance with ISSN: 9781439175668 United States Copyright Law (Title 17 US Code). It is intended only OCLC #: for your personal research or instructional use. The document may not be posted to the web or retransmitted in electronic form. Distribution or copying in any form requires the prior express written consent of the copyright owner and payment of royalties Infringement of copyright law may subject the violator to civil fine andlor criminal prosecution. Special Instructions: ScanforCanvas Notes/Alternate Delivery: Email: [email protected] EMAIL: [email protected] ILLiad CHAPTER 15 IKE'S MISSILE CRISIS "The world must stop the present plunge toward more and more destructive weapons of war:' I THE FIGHT OVER THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957, FOLLOWED by the bitter clash in Little Rock, left Eisenhower reeling and unsteady. His political fortunes sagged further when, in August 1957, the nation's economy slipped into a short, sharp recession. High interest rates, held in place by the Federal Reserve, began to curtail consumer spending. A falloff in purchases of durable goods, especially automobiles, and a tight-fisted government ap- proach to spending triggered a contraction of the economy. Unemployment climbed to 7.5 percent-the highest since 1941-and in auto-dependent Michigan it topped out at 11.4 percent. Northeastern industrial states were also hard hit. At the start of 1958 polls showed that Americans were more anxious about the economy than at any time since the Great Depression.' Eisenhower might have muddled through the racial turmoil and the economic troubles of the country. But in October 1957,just two weeks after sending federal troops to Little Rock, he endured a jolt that nearly wrecked his presidency, On October 4 the Soviet Union successfully put into orbit the world's first man-made satellite, a 184-pound aluminum sphere named Sputnik, meaning "fellow traveler:' Moving at 18,000 miles per hour and orbiting the Earth every 96 minutes, the satellite carried a simple radio transmitter that emitted periodic beeps. "An eerie intermittent croak-it sounded like a cricket with a cold-was picked up by radio receivers around the world last week;' noted Life magazine. Not only was it audible; some Americans claimed they could see it in the night sky, a bright dot moving rapidly through the darkness.' IKE'S MISSILE CRISIS 377 After a decade of intense anti-Soviet propaganda, Americans had come to believe that the USSR was a brutish, backward, and totalitarian society in which individual creativity had been extinguished. Yet Sputnik demon- strated that a communist nation with a command economy could outper- form the free world in scientific achievement. The R-7 rocket that carried the sphere into space produced 220,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff, powerful enough to break free of Earth's gravity and put its cargo into orbit. And the implications were terrifying: if the USSRcould accomplish this feat, it could surely place an atomic bomb on a missile and launch it at the United States. Inside the White House, Eisenhower hastily gathered his military and scientific advisers to discuss the Soviet achievement. He wanted to know why the USSR had beaten the United States into space. Undersecretary of Defense Donald Quarles explained: In 1955 the president had told the de- fense establishment to put all its energies into building long-range missiles for the purpose of carrying nuclear warheads. The effort to launch a satellite had been considered of secondary importance since its value was scientific rather than military. There was "no doubt;' said Quarles, that the United States could have launched a satellite earlier, but there had been no urgency about the matter. This must have been an awkward moment. The decision to sidetrack satellite development now looked shortsighted. CIA chief Allen Dulles told the president that the USSR had done what the United States had not: it had combined its rocket research with its satellite program and would reap the huge propaganda reward of having put Sputnik into orbit. Dulles admitted that in the Middle East and the underdeveloped nations, the Soviet success was getting great play.' The American press now engaged in recrimination and soul-searching. Weekly magazines Time and Newsweek rushed out articles bemoaning So- viet superiority in science and technology Life magazine called Sputnik "an epochal breakthrough into the new age of space exploration" but wondered in a headline, "Why Did the U.S.Lose the Race?" Democrats provided ready answers. Senator George Smathers of Florida blamed "government inept- ness and smugness:' Senator Henry Jackson of Washington accused Eisen- hower of failing to make the missile program a priority. "Russia has dealt a devastating blow to U.S.prestige as the world's technical leader; he declared. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, who had served as the first secretary of the air force under Truman and had his eye on the 1960 presidential race, asserted that "ironclad budgets have harmed our defense:' Lyndon Johnson 378 THE AGE OF EISENHOWER claimed, "The Soviets have beaten us at our own game-daring scientific advances in the atomic age:" During a news conference five days after the launch, the first question to the president, from Merriman Smith of United Press, carried a tinge of accusation: "Russia has launched an earth satellite. They also claim to have had a successful firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile, none of which this country has done. I ask you, sir, what are we going to do about it?" Eisenhower tried to reassure the public. He downplayed the Soviet achievement and said the United States planned to put a satellite into orbit by the end of 1958. Since the satellite was little more than a scientific curios- ity, he suggested, there was no need for haste. "Never has it been considered a race;' he stated, fooling no one. As to the missile used in launching Sputnik, the Soviets had proved "they can hurl an object a considerable distance." But could their rockets hit a target anywhere on Earth? Ike was doubtful. "Until you know something about their accuracy, you know nothing at all about their usefulness in warfare:' When asked if the presence of "a Russian satel- lite whirling about the world" made him anxious about the nation's security, Ike replied firmly, "That does not raise my apprehensions, not one iota." Eisenhower's nonchalance did nothing to quiet the national outcry. Col- umnist Arthur Krock, normally an administration supporter, asserted that Sputnik had vindicated the critics: on Ike's watch, America had fallen be- hind. Moreover the USSR had scored an undisputed propaganda victory, one that could pull neutral nations toward the Soviet orbit. The United States would have to rethink its entire defense effort, Krock argued, and the Democrats would be quite right in putting the heat on the administra- tion for its lackluster space effort. There would be political consequences: "Eisenhower's image as the soldier to whom the people can safely entrust every military decision will be permanently damaged:" Walter Lippmann, often a sharp critic of Eisenhower, agreed: Sputnik represented a failure of American science, ideas, and daring. American leaders had become complacent and anti-intellectual, nurturing a "popular disrespect for, and even a suspicion of, brains and originality of thought:' Low-brow culture had dampened the intellectual firepower of the country. Prosperity had become "a narcotic;' while President Eisenhower, dozing in "a kind of partial retirement;' let the nation drift. ,!-eflecting these morose sentiments, the stock market took its sharpest plunge in two years.' IKE'S MISSILE CRISIS 379 II The picture worsened in November. In fact the administration endured a series of hammer blows that badly dented Eisenhower's image. The Sovi- ets sent another satellite into space on November 3, this time with a dog named Laika on board. Immediately labeled "Muttnik" by the jocular press, this satellite weighed six times more than Sputnik 1. The rocket that carried it into orbit generated over a million pounds of thrust-a major scientific achievement. And in placing a dog on board that survived the launch (but died hours later), the Soviets had taken the first step toward putting humans into space. Lalka's craft reached an altitude of over 1,000 miles above the Earth, twice as high as Sputnik 1. Timed to coincide with the 40th anniver- sary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the launch prompted enormous pride and self-congratulation in Moscow. Khrushchev taunted the Americans at his anniversary address to a huge Communist Party assembly, with Mao Ze- dong at his side: the Soviet Sputniks "are circling the Earth and are waiting for the Americans and other satellites to join them!" Americans were once again amazed but rueful about Soviet technical prowess. "We have at last been out-gadgeted," the Washington Post editorial page sighed. Stewart Alsop in his column declared that Sputnik II "proves beyond serious question that the Western world is in deadly danger:' The Democrats moved quickly to capitalize on the political opportunity.
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