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N0KFQ > TODAY 07.11.15 18:22l 42 Lines 2042 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 73561_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Nov 7
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 151107/1620Z 73561@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1957
Gaither Report calls for more U.S. missiles and fallout shelters
The final report from a special committee called by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation's defense readiness
indicates that the United States is falling far behind the
Soviets in missile capabilities, and urges a vigorous campaign to
build fallout shelters to protect American citizens. The special
committee had been called together shortly after the stunning
news of the success of the Soviet Sputnik I in October 1957.
Headed by Ford Foundation Chairman H. Rowan Gaither, the
committee concluded that the United States was in danger of
losing a war against the Soviets. Only massive increases in the
military budget, particularly an accelerated program of missile
construction, could hope to deter Soviet aggression. It also
suggested that American citizens were completely unprotected from
nuclear attack and proposed a $30 billion program to construct
nationwide fallout shelters.Although the committee's report was
supposed to be secret, many of its conclusions soon leaked out to
the press, causing a minor panic among the American people.
President Eisenhower was less impressed. Intelligence provided by
U-2 spy plane flights over Russia indicated that the Soviets were
not the mortal threat suggested by the Gaither Report.
Eisenhower, a fiscal conservative, was also reluctant to commit
to the tremendously increased military budget called for by the
committee. He did increase funding for the development of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and for civil defense
programs, but ignored most of the other recommendations made in
the report. Democrats instantly went on the attack, charging that
Eisenhower was leaving the United States open to Soviet attack.
By 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy was
still hammering away at the supposed "missile gap" between the
United States and much stronger Soviet stockpiles.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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