Following World WAr II (1939-45) the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union became engaged in a series of largely political and economic clashes known as the Cold War. Public concerns about communism were heightened by international events. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb and communist forces led by Mao Zedong took control of China. The following year saw the start of the Korean War which engaged U.S. and Canadian troops in combat against the communist-supported forces of North Korea. The advances of communism around the world convinced many that there was a real danger of “Reds” taking over the world.
The first phase of the Cold War began immediately after the end of World War II. The U.S. created the NATO military alliance in 1949 in the apprehension of a Soviet attack and termed their global policy against Soviet influence containment. The Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955 in response to NATO. Major crises of this phase included the 1948-49 Berlin blockade, the 1927-50 Chinese Civil War, the 1950-53 Korean War, the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The USSR was delivering Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba after the 1953-59 Marxist-Leninist Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara which preceded the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. We all remember J.F . Kennedy arguing against the Soviet maneuvers and then Khruschev banging his shoe at the United Nations meeting. The USSR and the US competed for influence in Latin America , the Middle East and the decolononization of the states of Africa and Asia.
We grew up in the late 40’s and early 50’s in perpetual fear of the Russians, communists and nuclear warheads. I attended a convent in Zenon Park, NE Saskatchewan and every day the good Catholic nuns had us praying for the conversion of Russia and we practiced drills hiding under our school desks. In the 60’s the US had 54 Titan missiles stored 180 feet down in silos , the Russians had similar ones. Nuclear weapons totalled around 70,000, today down to about 14,000. THe US, UK and Russia have all been reducing their stockpiles. Now, China, Pakistan,India, North Korea and possibly Iran are producing more. Will we ever see a nuke -free world? Our generation saw the “Doomsday Clock”, to show how close humanity was to nuclear annihilation, or midnight on the clock.We were as close as 7 minutes to Doomsday! People were busy building bomb shelters and stockpiling provisions. I remember a satirical movie called Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers. It’s other name was “How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb” .
The DEW (Distant Early Warning) radar sites were constructed from 1954 to 1959 utilizing 25,000 people, at a cost of 600 million , 60 crashed planes and at least 35 lives. They were built to warn of incoming Soviet bombers or intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’S) in order to protect America.The DEW stations were manned but monitored by NORAD inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. There were 63 sites across the Arctic and 42 were in Canada. They ranged from the Aleutian Islands, across Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland and Iceland. THe US took care of the full cost of the construction but had to employ Canadian firms and native labour. Canada had ownership of the 42 sites in Canada and they had to be commanded by Canadians.
Information from Wikipedia.
DEW Line Radar Sites 1961-63 