Defense of the US in the Cold War

Author John Bronson discusses how US Cold War defenses evolved.

During the Cold War, while building defenses to protect from attack by the Soviet Union, the U.S. established means of massive long-range attacks in response to Soviet advancements in weaponry as a means of deterrence. These defenses detected and tracked manned bomber aircraft, hostile submarines and missiles launched from the other side of the world.

Author John Bronson discusses how these defenses evolved from fledgling stop-gap measures into a complex fabric of interconnected combinations of high-tech equipment over 40 years. Using maps and charts John illustrates the extent of the geographic coverage required for these warning and response systems and display the time frames and vast numbers of both people and equipment that made up these forces

John grew up in small Oregon towns. He did military service during the Cold War period. Following graduation from Oregon State he began an engineering career which began with work on weapons systems programs, evolved to aviation electronics, and spanned 35 years. This involvement in aviation electronics included navigation systems, guidance systems, and most recently targeting systems. Early in this period, he became a general aviation pilot, which led to ownership of two types of aircraft. After several years of retirement he moved to Bend. He is working on a second book about what the US did during the Cold War.