|
|
Article: Confronting the garrison state: South Carolina in the early Cold War era.
- Article from:
- The Journal of Southern History
- Article date:
- May 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Southern Historical Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
IN 1950 THE HINTERLANDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA BECAME THE CROSSROADS of the Cold War. In January of that year, President Harry S. Truman, in response to public and private pressure, announced that he had ordered the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to continue to develop "all forms of atomic weapons, including the ... hydrogen ... bomb." (1)
The decision to produce the hydrogen bomb (or "super," as it was often called) was fueled by the escalating tensions of the early Cold War. In September 1949 President Truman announced that the Soviet Union had recently detonated an atomic bomb. America's nuclear monopoly had ended, and what little security the average American felt ...