Was there ever a missile called the Minute Man, during the Reagan era?

[coloradodem2005]

I was talking to this guy who ran the Kerry meetup and told me how Bush was more hated in Europe than Reagan. I was wondering why. It had to do with missiles during the Reagan era. He mentioned one called the Minute Man. What do you know about this?

[prodigal_green]

1. Yes

Back during Ray-gun's administration, the US had nuclear missiles all over Europe. Europeans didn't particularly care for them and protested them regularly.

I lived in Europe for a little over a year in the 1980s and trust me, Reagan was about the most hated human being on the continent. As an American, I seemed to continually be called upon to answer for that doddering old man.

[coloradodem2005]

2. That's got to suck.

I was a little kid in the 1980's, but my brother was a teenager who hated Reagan. I acquired a lot of my beliefs from him. I have been told that Bush is hated much more in Europe than Reagan. Which I could believe.

[sweetheart]

3. and history repeats itself

What you say about your experience of having to answer for reagan...
is my experience today with the AWOL shrubbery. The nuclear missiles
are no longer necessary, the airbases are nuclear ready, and with
sub launchers, the need to take the political step towards housing
nuclear weapons on foreign soil has been overcome. Now they just
float off the coast and in the air.

We still today, fly the 24x7 B-52 nuclear deterrent.

Minute man missiles used to be everywhere including in north dakota.

http://www.afa.org/magazine/march2001/0301missile.pdf

Here's more on minute men...

peace,

[comradebillyboy]

4. we have had the minuteman missile system since the late 60s

i was stationed at a minuteman missile base in 71-72. whiteman afb missouri, great falls montana, minot north dakota and maybe one or two other minuteman bases. i think the minuteman system is still in service.

[Richard_TAP]

8. Take my word for it

Despite what many of our toadying political leaders say, Bush IS pretty well universally hated by the ordinary people of all European countries.

BTW, I was born here in England 61 years ago, so have seen many leaders come & go; over there and over here. I can't remember any world leader who's been as despised as GWB, since the end of WW2.

[Eileen]

16. Most hated "leader"

BTW, I was born here in England 61 years ago, so have seen many leaders come & go; over there and over here. I can't remember any world leader who's been as despised as GWB, since the end of WW2.

How about the guy he seems to emulate - Josef Stalin?

Eileen

[sweetheart]

19. stalin defeat the nazis when...

his nation lost 24 million dead, and the americans showed up at
the end to claim credit. In subsequent years, despite his terrible
crimes on the domestic front, i'm hard pressed to name all the
bush-like pan-global invastions and nuclear threats he
perpetrated.

Stalin's iron curtain, was a very understandable measure given
the history of western invastion of russia on that front, and the
fury of losting 1/5th of the russian population in war. The
iron curtain collapsed without any war advances, despite all the
western rhetoric.

Stalin was a mass murderer, but less agressive and dangerous than
bush.

[sweetheart]

18. Welcome to DU

Good to hear your voice Richard_TAP. I'm looking forward to many
more of your insights.

WELCOME :party: !!

Best regards,

-sweetheart

[Richard_TAP]

20. Thanks a lot Sweetheart

Stalin was, without a doubt, a horror.

Nonetheless, Stalin neither had the awesome power nor the intent, to try to ride roughshod over the whole world.

Also, much of what Stalin did was only learned after he'd gone. People now see what the bushmaladministration is up to, every day on their TV screens. Thankfully, Fox, CNN, etc, do not rule the media-roost outside the US.

[newyawker99]

21. Hi Richard_TAP!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Richard_TAP]

22. Thanks Newyarker99

You're right; being made feel welcome does mean a lot.

[Mr.Green93]

5. Reagan brought the PeaceKeeper missles on line.

[stldemocrat]

7. How Orwellian

[Touchdown]

11. "PeaceKeeper" = MX Missile.

The Reaganites thought "MX" sounded too draconian and imperialistic, so they went with the Orwellian "Peacekeeper". They say RayGun invented the term.:eyes:

[immoderate]

27. The thing about the MX missile...

...was this idea of putting them on underground railroad trains to shuffle them around the country so our enemies would never know where they were. When they figured the cost of that would be more than astronomical they came out with the "densepack" missile basing. That is, putting so many of them so close together that the incoming offensive missiles would blow each other out. Then came the Star Wars Folly. There were lots of laughs.

The Reagan era was one we could call "Stupid Republican Tricks."

--IMM

[BiggJawn]

6. Reagan era, Nixon era, Johnson era...

As pointred out, "Minuteman" is an OLD system.
Reagan wanted to bring in a system called "Peacemaker" (S'Yeah, right...) thta was-get this-mounted on railcars and moved constantly on a network of buried railroad tracks. (can't hit 'em if you can't see 'em!)
It was killed.

[DBoon]

12. Too bad it was killed

It would have been a good excuse to build an underground mass transit system in some cities that needed it. Guess which cars have the missle hidden in them!

We'd have called it the "National Defense Mass Transit Program"! ;)

[NWHarkness]

17. You aren't far off

The Reaganites did have a plan to mount nuclear missiles on railroad cars and have them constantly rolling around the country so the Soviets wouldn't know where they were.

[prodigal_green]

23. Oh Yeah!

The first time I ever met a Republican (I swear!) I was in college (first week) and made some joke about the underground MX missile system. The guy's response, "That's the only thing keeping the Russians out of America."

Needless to say, there was no second date.

[stldemocrat]

26. Are you sure...

it wasn't because he was a Minute Man?

:wow:

[Jim__]

9. There was a Minute Man I , a Minute Man II, and a Minute Man III

The Minute Man I was around from the 60's; I believe the Minute man III is still in service More on MinuteMan

The big missile during Reagan's term was the MX. "First strike" capability was the main concern at that time. If the enemy could launch his missiles and take out all of your's with that first strike, he could win a nuclear war. Thus the big question was how do you avoid being vulnerable to a first strike. I think the MX had the capability to be mounted on railroad cars and thus were far less vulneable. Carter was trying to implement that option. Reagan proposed Star Wars instead.

One of the things that happened in the late 70's early 80's was the Soviets deployed a number of SS20 missiles near Europe to defend against a NATO attack. Reagan countered by basing US missiles in Europe. Many European leaders supported his moves; but the citizenry was largely oppoised.

[teryang]

10. Actually, it was a short range ballistic nuke

...called the Pershing if I am not mistaken. Hundreds of these mobile nuclear missiles were deployed in Europe. It was used to create a counterweight to Soviet IRBMs which they did not want included in the SALT II negotiations. Introducing short range tactical nukes to Europe made the possibility of tactical nuclear war on European soil possible without targeting of the United States. This pissed off Europeans who felt it created instability and was an unnecessary provocation.

[stldemocrat]

13. Reagan

He created all this turmoil, and it turned out that it was unnecessary, because the Soviet Union was already near collapse. If they would have only spent that money on building a healthcare system for everyone!

[FlaGranny]

14. What?

Are you crazy? How could health care have put money in defense contractors' pockets? :evilgrin:

[stldemocrat]

15. Funny

Not really, unfortunately it's true. :greedyrepublican: <-- we need that smiley

[Lindsay]

24. We have a :greedyrepublican: smiley...

:evilfrown:

.

.

:evilgrin:

[stldemocrat]

25. Oh, I thoght...

that those were the evilrepublican ones. We need green ones to emphasize the greed.