The Titan II explosion fit perfectly with the media narrative inspired by the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the taking of American hostages in Iran, and the Carter administration’s failed attempt to rescue those hostages. The United States seemed to have become weak, timid, incompetent. And the “official” version of events was never to be trusted. Although Pentagon rules allowed the disclosure of information about a nuclear weapon after an accident, “as a means of reducing or preventing widespread public alarm,” the Air Force wouldn’t release any details about the warhead in Damascus. When General Lloyd Leavitt threatened to end a press conference in Little Rock if anyone asked another question about the warhead, whose existence had already been televised on CNN, the whole issue became a joke. A newspaper cartoon depicted three Air Force officers: one covering his eyes, one plugging his ears, and one covering his mouth. “If you’re on the military’s side, you can claim that the system worked because the nuclear warhead didn’t go off,” columnist Art Buchwald wrote. “If you live in the area, you may find it hard to sell your house.”
The Soviet Union claimed that the Titan II explosion could have been mistaken for a surprise attack and precipitated “a nuclear conflict.” Senator Pryor and two Republican senators, Bob Dole and Barry Goldwater, demanded a new investigation of the Titan II missile system. “If it’s not safe and effective, I don’t know why you need it,” Dole said.
The accident response group examined the interior of the warhead with the aid of a “pig”—a highly radioactive block of cobalt-60 in a lead box. A sheet of photographic film was placed on one side of the weapon, the pig was put on the other, and the box was opened briefly with a lanyard. Everyone stayed a respectful distance from the pig until the box was shut. The device offered a simple but effective means of taking an X-ray, and it revealed that the warhead was safe to move. Contrary to protocol, the EOD unit from Little Rock was asked to render safe the weapon. Matthew Arnold’s team from Barksdale had to stand and watch as EOD technicians who didn’t even belong to the Strategic Air Command separated the primary from the secondary at 4–7, hidden from CNN’s cameras by a tent. The two sections of the warhead were loaded into separate jet engine containers filled with sand. The containers were lifted onto a flatbed truck, and the truck left the complex as part of a convoy early in the morning on September 22.
“Hey, Colonel, is that what you won’t confirm or deny?” a reporter shouted at one of the passengers, as the truck turned onto Highway 65.
The officer smiled for the cameras and gave a thumbs-up.
Ronald Reagan didn’t feel despair about the future, suffer from a crisis of confidence, or doubt the greatness of the United States. His optimism had tremendous appeal to a nation that seemed in decline. Reagan soundly defeated Jimmy Carter in the presidential election, winning the popular vote by about 10 percent and receiving almost ten times the number of electoral votes. The Republican Party gained control of the Senate and drove four Democratic governors from office — including Bill Clinton, who lost a close race to his conservative opponent. At the age of thirty-four, Clinton became the youngest ex-governor in the United States. The election of 1980 marked a cultural shift, a rejection of liberalism, big government, and the self-critical, apologetic tone that had dominated American foreign policy since the end of the Vietnam War. The new sense of patriotism and nationalism appeared to have an immediate effect. As President Reagan concluded his inaugural address on January 20, 1981, the fifty-two Americans who’d been held hostage for more than a year were released by the government of Iran.
“Peace through strength” had been one of Reagan’s campaign slogans, and his administration soon began the largest peacetime military buildup in the history of the United States. Over the next five years, America’s defense budget would almost double. And the arms race with the Soviet Union would be deliberately accelerated — out of a belief that the United States could win it. Reagan opposed not only détente, but every arms control agreement that the United States had signed with the Soviet Union. In a 1963 speech, he said that President Kennedy’s foreign policy was “motivated by fear of the bomb” and that “in an all-out race our system is stronger, and eventually the enemy gives up the race as a hopeless cause.” The following year Reagan described the Soviets as “the most evil enemy that has ever faced mankind.” His views on the subject remained largely unchanged for the next two decades. He was the first president since Woodrow Wilson who sincerely believed that American military power could bring an end to communism in the Soviet Union.
