Landry Brewer - Cold War Kansas

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2020 by Landry Brewer

All rights reserved

First published 2020

E-book edition 2020

ISBN 978.1.43967.087.3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934363

print edition ISBN 978.1.46714.663.0

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

FOREWORD

I had never set foot in Kansasor anyplace closeuntil I came out to interview for a job some three decades ago. I was fortunate enough to get that job and have lived in the Sunflower State ever since, happily raising a family and getting to know my adopted home and the people who live here.

Like most Americans who have never been here, when I first arrived, my head was filled with hazy images of small-town life and sun-bleached fields stretching to the horizon, marred perhaps by the occasional twister or two. This last vestige of pastoral America, I imagined, might still be peopled with the friendly but hardworking Auntie Ems and Uncle Henrys raising their own little Dorothys in the plain but honest goodness of the heartland. I did come to find all of that in Kansas, though, in truth, Kansas and its people are more rich and complex, as well as more beautiful and authentic, than all the popular culture stereotypes.

It is this Kansas, the real-life-is-better-than-fiction version, that Professor Brewer explores in a well-researched and fluidly written volume. The book is satisfying in its coverage of the many national political and cultural events, federal government policies, and citizen programs to endure the Cold Wars existential threat to American society. But its real strength is showing how all of this played out among my fellow Kansans, the three-dimensional Kansans I have come to know and appreciate over the years.

The Cold War touched Kansas in a wide variety of ways and areas of life. Some were direct and predictable, such as the enhanced roles and responsibilities of the states major military installations: Forbes, Schilling and McConnell Air Force Bases and Forts Leavenworth and Riley. The states geographically central location coupled with the lower population density typical of the Midwest also made Kansas a natural choice for many of the ICBM launch sites so prominent in early Cold War defense strategy. These were an economic boost to local communities but also instilled a genuine pride among Kansans in the high priority they earned on the Soviet target list. Civil defense was another facet of the Cold War that reverberated throughout the state: defense shelters, school and community evacuation and medical treatment plans, jousting among local, state, and federal governments about funding and policy.

And Kansas played a reciprocal role in shaping the Cold War. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a favorite son of the Sunflower State, served a full two terms in the White House during the Cold Wars earliest stages, establishing indispensable policies, procedures and institutions that allowed the United States, and the world at large, to survive those dangerous decades. Professor Brewer also relates the remarkable story of The Day After, a movie made in Kansas about Kansas in a nuclear holocaustand a movie that shook the nations psyche and directly influenced national policy.

Yes, this is the story of the friends, colleagues, and neighbors I have come to know in what is now my home, my Kansas, and how they weathered the dangers, the opportunities and the fortunes of the Cold War. But most of all, it is a story of Americans, and one that all Americans should know.

Mark Parillo
Mark Parillo is an author and history professor at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a debt of gratitude to The History Press for publishing this book. Thank you for seeing the value in it.

Acquisitions editor Chad Rhoad showed great patience with my frequent questions and photographic ignorance.

Virgil Dean with the Kansas Historical Society edited and improved a portion of the manuscript.

The SWOSU administration and my colleagues there continue to be supportive in my teaching, research and writing.

Thank you to Dr. Brad Lookingbill for your encouragement and example of scholarship, professionalism and what a kid from Elk City, Oklahoma, can accomplish.

My family continues to be a source of inspiration, in spite of their weariness with my talk of missiles, fallout shelters and all things Cold War.

INTRODUCTION

The Cold War was frightening. For more than four decades, Americans feared that civilization would end amid fire and fallout if the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union got hot. Kansans understood the raw power of the elements, and they understood that they were in the bullseye.

After victory in World War II, the United States found itself the leader of the free world. The Soviet Unions Red Army had marched into eastern Europe en route to Berlin to force a Nazi surrender. Where the Red Army went, Communism followed. Millions of Poles, Germans, Czechs and others found themselves enslaved under Communist rule, puppet states controlled by Moscow.

To Americans, Joseph Stalin had replaced Adolf Hitler as the dictator trying to conquer Europe and the world. Because no other nation in the world had the ability to intervene and stop Soviet expansion, American foreign policy in the late 1940s changed with the intent of stopping Communisms march.

In 1947, President Truman announced that the United States would stop Communisms attempt to undermine and control free people with economic, political and, if necessary, military assistance. The latter included the atomic bomb.

The nationincluding Kansasreadied itself for what President Kennedy called a long twilight struggle.

From the four corners of the state, Kansans joined national efforts to bolster national security and stop Communism as the Soviet Union appeared intent on conquering our European allies and further spreading its influence. With its acquiring thermonuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them, that nation also appeared intent on attacking the United States and inflicting possibly civilization-ending destruction.

Kansans from all walks of life sprang into action. Some military bases in the state were opened, and others were expanded. Long-range missile sites were built and operated. Civilians prepared to survive the effects of a nuclear attack. State and national politicians from Kansas readied their governments to protect their constituents and preserve the nations way of life in the face of graveand at times imminentdanger.