Cold War

Many of the military technological advancements that have been made in the last 60 years can be attributed to the Cold War. Much of the technology developed during the period of the Cold War is still in use today by the military and government. Advancements in offensive technology are well known to just about everyone in the way of nuclear energy harnessed in the form of the nuclear bomb, but little is known about the battle for information during the Cold War. The Cold War produced some of the most advanced technology used in the fields of detection and reconnaissance in history. The United States' detection and reconnaissance technology played a major role against communism during the Cold War, and these types of technology still play roles today.

A cold war is an ideological conflict with military standoffs while keeping diplomatic relations open. The Cold War consisted of two sides (or Superpowers); the first was the United States, who believed in and practiced capitalism, the opposing side was the Soviet Union, who believed in and practiced the idea of communism. Many historians dispute the start time of the conflict; however, it began some time after World War II and dragged on until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. The Cold War Project Group Online claims "the advancement of technology during the Cold War was greater than that of any one time period" ("The Arms Race"). The war developed nuclear missiles and many other technological advancements taking the world into a new era, the Nuclear Era. It was estimated at one time the United States and the Soviet Union could nuke the world seven times over; the governments realized the pointlessness of so many nuclear missiles and turned their attention toward other ways to get an upper hand in the conflict. Tensions ran high during this time; without military confrontation, research and resources were redirected towards other fields of technology such as detection systems, surveillance equipment, and underwater technologies.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, other wise known as NORAD, is a series of radar stations in North America that were built in 1950s. NORAD is a joint United States and Canadian organization that provides warnings and aerospace control for North America. The North American Aerospace Defense Command consists of three joint radar systems: the Pinetree Line, McGill Fence, and Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line). Pinetree Line was completed in 1954 and is made up of 33 stations across southern Canada. The McGill Fence was completed in 1957 and consists of Doppler radar (for low-flying air crafts and missiles) along the 55th parallel of North America. Thanks to the DEW line system of radars, North America is given about three hours before largely populated cities are reached by aircraft or missile from the Soviet Union. On September 12, 1957 NORAD came online in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. NORAD played an unusual role during the Cold War.

On July 31, 1979 Ronald Reagan visited NORAD. During Reagan's visit asked if the United States had any defense against a missile attack and was told that U.S. has no defense against nuclear attack, except for the threat of retaliation (Fitzgerald 20). Soon after taking office, Reagan "launched the largest peace-time military buildup in American history" and gave the go ahead on the Strategic Defense Initiative also known as Star War (Fitzgerald 148). Star War utilized laser and satellite technology to push Soviet missiles off course and stop them from hitting their intended targets. Although the project was scraped by the United States, both the United States and the Soviet Union put billions of dollars into the project thus contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The role that NORAD has taken to today is quite different form its earlier role during the Cold War.

In 1989 NORAD suffered from cut backs because of the cuts to military funding after the end of the Cold War. NORAD now helps with tracking small-engine planes in the fight on drugs. Many of the radar systems have been replaced and the base in Cheyenne Mountain has been updated. At Christmas NORAD tracks Santa Claus delivering toys to children on the web site . Currently NORAD stands ready but not like it was during the Cold War. NORAD was not the only technology that played a role during the Cold War.

The United States did not see space exploration as a priority until the Soviet Union launched a satellite into space. On October 4, 1957 a new threat launched into the sky called Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. This satellite was launched by the Soviets not the United States causing the United States to refocus their technology efforts towards space. Although Sputnik was harmless it became a political nightmare for United States government officials in the realm of propaganda. Americans thought that the Soviet Union passed the United States in technology contributing to the idea of the "missile gap" and had become superior to the United States (Finkelstein 8). President Eisenhower knew about the satellite before the Soviets launched it thanks to the U2 Spy Plane. Many Americans also had the notion that the satellite could fire nuclear missiles thus causing the bomb shelter build frenzy during the Cold War (Finkelstein 8). This caused the construction of many public bomb shelters and even air raid drills in school, where children ducked under their desks. The idea of Sputnik circling the Earth caused wide spread panic among Americans. Eisenhower also knew Sputnik had no offensive capabilities and therefore could not threaten the United States, because it could only send out radio signals. The United States later turns this media nightmare around

The United States answered the Sputnik launch four month later with the launch of the Explorer I on January 31, 1958 and went one step further by putting a man on the moon on July 15, 1969. The Soviets never put a man on the moon thus making the United States the dominating power in the Space Race. Even with continuing tension between the United States and Soviet Union space exploration stayed a priority for the United States, who launched many more satellite to explore the universe and expanded it. Winning the media battle was not the United States' only reason for enter the Space Race.

CORONA was the first United States reconnaissance satellites to be launched by the United States. A total of 145 CORONA satellites were launched between 1959 and 1972 (Johnson). These satellites were top secret and unknown to the general public until 1995 when President Clinton declassified the project. The mission of these satellites was to photograph the Soviet military secrets and later help to prove that the "missile gap," in which