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Article ID: CBB001212896

Selling Greenland: The Big Picture Television Series and the Army's Bid for Relevance during the Early Cold War (2013)

Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 55, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 344-357

Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Perspectives on Cold War Science in Small European States”
Language: English

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Public understanding of science Cold War Mass media Science and war; science and the military Cross-national interaction 20th century Greenland United States

With an increased emphasis on air defense and missile technology at the outset of the Cold War, the role of the US Army's conventional ground forces seemed in doubt. The US Air Force achieved a position of primacy among the armed forces as it expanded its reach into outer space with a new ballistic missile force, while the US Navy set about a project of seafaring exploration and militarization with the submerged trans-polar crossings. To counter this perception, the US Army mounted a campaign to prove its relevance in matters of technology and national defense. The key technical vehicle in this endeavor would prove to be mass media, and the staging area for the effort would be Greenland. Greenland would be the venue for the Army's most audacious appeals to the American people and the Congress to recognize its relevance to Cold War science and technology. Greenland would be called a `forward defense system,' and a `cordon against aggression,' and while the Air Force's bombers would be stationed on the coast at Thule, the Greenland icecap would be the realm of the US Army alone.

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Article Heymann, Matthias; Martin-Nielsen, Janet (2013) Introduction: Perspectives on Cold War Science in Small European States. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 221-242). unapi

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