Richard,

You are right, the Cold War was certainly well-heated by 1957 ... on the 
political and military levels. I should have said that the launch of Sputnik 
"marked the beginning of the PUBLIC's awareness/involvement" in the Cold War 
... although a small boy (having just begun public school a couple months 
earlier) I well remember the universal dread expressed by just about 
everyone in my small town that the Russians (Reds, Ruskies, damned commie 
bastards, etc. etc.) had gotten out ahead of us in such an astounding 
technological achievement. So, for the American populace at large, I 
consider the launch of Sputnik as the seminal point in the Cold War ... 
after that, the Soviet threat became a tangible threat which could no longer 
be denied or ignored, not even by the most fervent patriots, the most 
misguided apologists, the most insular deniers and staunchest isolationists 
living in every small town throughout the country.

I also remember the stark wonder of the night my father and I walked through 
the darkness hand-in-hand to the top of a nearby hill and beheld the two 
sparkly and blinky new moons crossing the sky. The wonder was not diminished 
by knowing beforehand that some men (albeit foreigners) were responsible for 
launching these new "heavenly bodies" ... and in my child's mind ... 
wondering if this might not be a very wise thing to have done ... intruding 
into what I had been taught (and then believed) was God's realm.

Bob
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, 
without either virtue or talents ... The artificial aristocracy is a 
mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to 
prevent its ascendancy."

- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

> But alas, the launch of sputnik did not start the Cold War.  That was 
> already going strong in 1957.  There are a lot of Cold War properties 
> older than that, including the former Clarksville Base here at Fort 
> Campbell.
>
>
> Richard D. Davis, MA