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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.
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