How nuclear weapons helped drive the United States into the missile
age.
The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), designed to quickly
deliver thermonuclear weapons to distant targets, was the central
weapons system of the Cold War. ICBMs also carried the first astronauts
and cosmonauts into orbit. More than a generation later, we are still
living with the political, technological, and scientific effects of the
space race, while nuclear-armed ICBMs remain on alert and in the
headlines around the world.
In The Bomb and America's Missile Age, Christopher Gainor explores the
US Air Force's (USAF) decision, in March 1954, to build the Atlas,
America's first ICBM. Beginning with the story of the guided missiles
that were created before and during World War II, Gainor describes how
the early Soviet and American rocket programs evolved over the course of
the following decade. He argues that the USAF was wrongly criticized for
unduly delaying the start of its ICBM program, endangering national
security, and causing America embarrassment when a Soviet ICBM
successfully put Sputnik into orbit ahead of any American satellite.
Shedding fresh light on the roots of America's space program and the
development of US strategic forces, The Bomb and America's Missile Age
uses evidence uncovered in the past few decades to set the creation of
the Atlas ICBM in its true context--not only in the America of the
postwar years but also in comparison with the real story of the Soviet
missiles that propelled the space race and the Cold War. Aimed at
readers interested in the history of the Cold War and of space
exploration, the book makes a major contribution to the history of
rocket development and the nuclear age.
