Inside the Cold War

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INSIDE THE COLD WAR Lt Gen Curtis E. LeMay, commander of US Air Forces in Europe, called upon the B-29s again in June 1948, at the outset of the Berlin Blockade. Later that year, on 19 October, General LeMay was named commanding general of SAC; the “era of SAC” had begun in earnest. Earlier in 1946, President Harry S. Truman had approved Operation Crossroads, an exercise designed to evaluate the destructive, radiation, and collateral effects of atomic weapons. The exercise involved over 42,000 SAC, Navy, and civilian scientists. On 1 July 1946, in the first exercise event, a B-29 crew commanded by Maj (later Maj Gen) Woodrow P. Swancutt dropped a Nagasaki-type bomb at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. The planned air detonation exploded over 73 target ships of various types moored off Bikini. Five ships sank immediately and nine were badly damaged. The Navy then detonated a second atomic device that was tethered under water, beneath a landing ship transport (LST) craft; it caused even greater damage to the targeted surface ships. The success of these two detonations led to cancellation of a planned third blast. The Defense Department and the scientific community had determined that the testing of atomic-type weapons warranted the requirement that specially trained people, beyond SAC and Navy crews, conduct such experiments. Accordingly, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), forerunner to the present Department of Energy, was created as a civilian agency and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP – “Af-Swop”) was established as the military agency to jointly coordinate nuclear activities. AEC was charged with principal responsibility for the design and development of nuclear weapons, providing the budgets, and managing the contracts of the national nuclear-related laboratories. AFSWP was charged with coordinating the planning of nuclear weapons tests, conducting research on nuclear effects, and providing technical, logistical, and training support for the Department of Defense (DOD) testing units. Maj Gen Leslie Groves, who had headed-up the Manhattan Project, was appointed director of AFSWP. In time, and following mission charter adjustments, AFSWP was renamed Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) in 1959. In 1971, it 10
THE COLD WARRIORS became the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA); finally, in 1996, it became the Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA). Atmospheric and, later, underground tests of nuclear devices were conducted jointly by these agencies to validate performance, safety, reliability, and destructive/radiation effects. The military services and the national laboratories provided the necessary resources and technical support for the testing. I was fortunate to be assigned for a time to Joint Task Force Eight (JTF-8), the field planning and testing unit of DASA and DNA, headquartered at Sandia Base, New Mexico, and later as a staff officer at DNA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This was a rare and exceptional opportunity for a Cold Warrior to work alongside the nuclear weapons scientists/designers from Los Alamos, Livermore, and Sandia laboratories. Also, I was able to participate in weapons test planning, and in exercises. Many of the original atomic bomb scientists, engineers, and technicians, some of whom became legends within their own time, remained active in the weapons development program into the 1960s and 1970s. Nuclear weapons testing continued in the South Pacific, directed from the elaborate test and monitoring facilities located on Johnston Atoll, six hundred miles south of the Hawaiian Islands. Following the signing of the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty in July 1963, all nuclear weapons testing went underground at the Nevada Test Site near Mercury, Nevada. By that time, the United States and the Soviet Union had conducted a total of 336 nuclear weapons tests in the 17 years since the end of World War II. Following its establishment and during the decade of the 1950s, SAC enjoyed a swift evolution of weapon systems and strategic tactics. The controversial B-36 bomber came and went, replaced by the B-52. The B-47, B-58, Atlas, and Titan I were phased out in the mid-1960s. Atlas II, Minuteman, and Titan II replaced Atlas and Titan I, eventually comprising a combined total of 1,054 ICBMs by the mid-1960s. The last generation of Minuteman (MM III) brought an enhanced flexibility to the SAC force through multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) payloads and a command data buffer, which allowed rapid retargeting from the Minuteman launch control centers. The added capabilities 11
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Donaldson, Robert H. The Soviet Uni
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Hosbawm, Eric. The Age of Extremes.
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Inside the Cold War

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