Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in Philip, South Dakota

Eric & I visited the Minuteman

Missile National Historic Site

The Visitors Center provides

information on The Cold War

& the US Nuclear Missile

Program.

World War II and the US development of the Atomic Bomb provided fertile ground for The Cold War.  

A devastated Europe was busy rebuilding.  The United States emerged as the World's Superpower.  The Former Soviet Socialist Republic established satellite Soviet Communist governments in Eastern Europe.  The geopolitical differences were vast.  Tensions grew between the two countries.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by the US with Atomic Bombs, the Soviets worked hard to acquire the information, materials, and skills to match, if not supersede US Nuclear Weaponry.

Fear dominiated the late 1940s

through1991.

We, Americans, were afraid of

the Soviets, & the Soviets were

afraid of us.

Our country prepared for the War

that no one was going to win.

We watched The Cold War

Escalate on our TV Sets.

Americans were educated

& encouraged to prepare.

While the Federal Government had the Interstate Highway System built, cities and towns were designating public buildings as Fall Out Shelters.

People had Bomb Shelters built or converted their basements to prepare for Nuclear Fallout.  Planning included lighting, furniture, water, food...

Shelters & Basements were 

stocked with rations.

Solid Fuel Minuteman Rockets were developed to fly thousands of miles to the USSR.  Missile Silos were developed to house the Missiles that no one wanted to use.

Farmland was used to build

the Silos & infrastructure for

the Nuclear Missile Program.

Launch Control Facility

Delta-01 is nearby.

Politicians and writers in our country assured us that the United States would win any Nuclear Assault. More and more Missiles were built.  

  

Soviet politicians & writers

reported on the growing

stockpile of Nuclear Weapons

& assured their citizens 

that the USSR would be

victorious.

The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction was developed to describe the Nuclear Arms Race. 

Starting in 1963 Arms Control Treaties between the US and the USSR were signed.

Over 65,000 Nuclear Weapons

were built.

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it became clear that the Soviet Union was going to unravel.  The START Treaties of 1991 and 1993 created timelines for the disarming and dismantling of thousands of Nuclear Missiles and Warheads.

Many thousands of Nuclear Weapons have been destroyed.  And, today, over 12,000 Nuclear Weapons remain.  

Silos in South Dakota

& other states were 

imploded.

The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and two nearby Silo Sites have been preserved to remind us that the threat of Nuclear War loomed over the world for almost five decades.  

Russian President Putin has threatened the use of Nuclear Weapons during the War with Ukraine that he started in 2022.