On 31 December 1952, with barely three weeks left in his term, President Harry S Truman signed a National Security Council document directing the construction of prototype radar stations. The result would be a chain of more than 60 stations stretching 3000 miles—from Alaska across Canada to Iceland—along the 70th parallel about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The chain, known as the Distant Early Warning Line (see figure 1), was an important part of an elaborate system of radar equipment to warn against an attack by the Soviet Union. The DEW Line was a bold idea that challenged American fortitude and technology. Twenty-five men died building the chain, which required extensive construction in some of Earth’s most inaccessible and inhospitable terrain and climate; small groups of men had to live far from civilization—and through arctic winters—to operate the radar stations (see figure 2). One estimate...
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1 July 2006
July 01 2006
Scientists, security, and lessons from the cold war
In the years following World War II, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, President Truman decided the US would develop a hydrogen bomb, Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, Congress quadrupled US defense spending, and the US government turned to a small cadre of physicists for advice.
Physics Today 59 (7), 39–44 (2006);