Full Moral and Material Strength: The Early Cold War Architectural Legacy atHolloman Air Force Base, New Mexico (ca. 1950-1960)

摘要

Managers at Federal agencies are currently challenged with deciding how to carefor buildings and structures constructed in response to the Cold War. The daunting task of deciding what to preserve from the built legacy of the Cold War, and how to preserve it, provides an ideal opportunity for Federal resource managers and the preservation community to strengthen what has at times been a tenuous relationship. Although the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted thirty years ago, the preservation goals and methods embodied in that legislation have only recently been refined and widely promulgated. The Legacy Resource Management Program (legislated 5 November 1990) was created to ensure that this nation's Cold War heritage is not neglected. Both the National Historic Preservation Act and the Legacy Resource Management Program assist in the effective stewardship of our nation's cultural resources. The architectural legacy and the documentary heritage borne as a result of the Cold War, if cared for properly, will provide the grist for future primary research into a unique and often perilous phase of world history. Military bases, testing facilities, innumerable corporations, and sprawling communications networks developed nationwide and overseas after World War II in order to attain twin national objectives: (1) to contain the perceived threat of communism, and (2) to physically conquer the realm of outer space. The construction of 42,795 miles of 'Interstate and Defense Highways' was initiated during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration with the enactment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. 'If the need arose, Eisenhower knew that such a system would provide invaluable mobility for the national defense' (Federal Highway Administration 1993:1).