During the Cold War, the American and Soviet military superpowers propelled the world into an era of perpetual fear and panic. At the peak of the nuclear arms race in the 1960s, the United States developed the Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). From Nebraska to Montana, far from heavily populated areas, over one hundred Minuteman II silos peppered the American landscape. Capable of carrying a one-to-two-megaton nuclear warhead to targets in the Soviet Union, the Minuteman missile’s destructive force exemplified American military might and served as a nuclear deterrent, preserving peace and preventing war.

The ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s eliminated the need for the United States’ expensive and aging ICBM facilities and nuclear weapons arsenal. With the approval from Congress, the National Park Service converted the last remaining Minuteman II launch control center and missile silo in Jackson County and Pennington County, South Dakota into a historic site. The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site preserves the memory of the men and women who worked at the nation’s nuclear defense sites, as well as a reminder of the turbulent times and constant tension the United States faced during the Cold War.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Spenser Andrade.