What was the missile gap?

The Minuteman is an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM. It is 60 feet tall, 5.5 feet wide, and weighs 80,000 pounds. Minuteman missiles reside in underground siloes throughout the midwestern United States.

Estimates indicate there are about 400 Minuteman missiles sitting in siloes waiting for launch orders that must be adjudicated by the president (you know, the nuclear football).

A key feature of the Minuteman is its ability to be ready to launch in less than a minute (hence, the name).

A Minuteman missile can travel up to at 15,000 miles per hour. When launched from the U.S., the missile can reach targets in China, Russia, and the Arctic in less than hour.

The payload of the Minuteman contains three different nuclear warheads, each with 20 times the destructive power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Sputnik was not much, just a sphere that was two-feet across and contained a set of instruments that sent radio signals back to Earth that amateur radio operators all over the world could capture.

Sputnik changed everything. Suddenly, there was no U.S. superiority – its arch enemy, a communist country, now was the world’s technological, and by default, military leader.

There were concerns that the Soviets could drop bombs on the U.S. from space. Questions were raised about science education in the U.S. being inadequate.

And, since the U.S. needed to win the new Space Race and regain technological and military superiority, NASA was created.

All were appropriate competitive responses, much like a long-running, successful business would make when threatened by an upstart competitor.

But there was one enormous lie that drove public perception: The Missile Gap.

The Missile Gap story went something like this: The Soviets might have hundreds or even thousands of ICBMs by the early 1960s. This fed into public fears and political rhetoric about American vulnerability.

However, by 1961, U.S. intelligence revealed that the Soviet Union had a grand total of……..four operational ICBMs at the time. Meanwhile, the U.S. had hundreds of missiles, bombers, and nuclear weapons.

The Missile Gap became a prominent issue in Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign against Nixon, though Kennedy later claimed that he learned after becoming president that the gap was in America's favor

So, there actually was a Missile Gap, but it was in the favor of the U.S. The Soviet advantage was a concept created out of thin air that did a couple of things:

• Created a massive amount of anxiety in the U.S. about our safety.

• Created a massive amount of patriotism in the U.S. since we needed to band together to fight the common enemy.

Politically, it was a brilliant strategy.

In today’s world of news and fake news overload, it is even more difficult to judge whether we are being educated or are being played.

Key Takeaways

• Studies show we are several times more responsive to fear or losses then we are to happiness or gains. Stories like the Missile Gap attack those emotions while grabbing and holding our attention. Bad news sells.

• As the saying goes, “There are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth.” Keep this in mind when media start predicting the end of the world.

• When confronting news like the Missile Gap, ask the key question, “Who benefits from the information as its presented?” This will lead you to the truth much faster than parsing statements made by the talking heads in the media.

Thing I think about

The Hindenburg was originally designed as a helium-filled vessel since helium was non-flammable. But, the U.S. held a monopoly on helium and did not want it exported, so Germany used highly flammable hydrogen instead. As we know, the results were not good.

Recommended reading

Thirteen Days
First person account of the Cuban missile crisis, written by Robert F. Kennedy. Also, a good movie.

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century
How the events of one weekend changed the world.

The Right Stuff
The birth of the U.S. space program.

Remarkable People Podcast
Hear from real thought leaders across culture, big issues, and anything else important.

Fortune’s Formula
The story of the Kelly Formula, still in use today at casinos and Wall Street.

The Psychology of Money
Lessons on money and life. I have given this book to a dozen people.

***Full list of recommended reading is here.