Janet Burton Seegmiller History of Iron County In August 1949 Russia exploded its first nuclear device, launching the nuclear arms race. Ten months later, war broke out between North Korea and South Korea. President Harry S. Truman established the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and answered the Russian challenge with plans to build an enlarged atomic-weapons arsenal, which required intensive and …
Nuclear Testing and the Downwinders
Janet Burton Seegmiller The History of Iron County War in Asia caused the United States to reconsider testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean and to look for a continental test site. Conflict in Korea justified a less-expensive continental testing site in order to maintain U.S. nuclear weapons superiority. A Nevada site north of Las Vegas was chosen because of …
The Cold War, Korean War, and the Resurrection of Utah’s Defense Establishment
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place In 1946, Winston Churchill warned that an “Iron Curtain” had fallen over central Europe, an image that galvanized the public imagination. The Soviet Union had begun installing puppet governments throughout Eastern Europe; and American, British, and French troops occupied western Germany. Communist guerillas unleashed attacks on the Greek government, and the USSR reluctantly …