That was the first time we started seeing the replay of the second tower getting hit. The motion of the airplane hitting the tower and the explosion burned into everyones memory, that is the first time the president saw it. Right after that moment when dan bartlett alerted everyone in the room, he said look at the tv and we saw it. Everyone was stunned in silence because we had never seen it. We heard what had happened. To me, that is the critical moment the president visually could connect what really happened. Just that second later, the president turned to see that image for the first time. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website where all our video is archived. Cspan. Org history. With a series of north Korean Missile tests in the news recently, we decided to look back at the development of missiles and bombers in the United States. America, the air force missile mission. Appearing in his Beverly Hills home library, Academy Awardwinning actor and world war ii bomber pilot James Stewart uses models, animation, and archival film to describe how the u. S. Air force missile and jet arsenal is used as a deterrent in the cold war. Mr. Stewart, who reflects on his World War Ii Service in a b24 liberator, was promoted in 1959 to Brigadier General in the u. S. Air force reserve, and flew a 1966 vietnam bombing mission. This is about 24 minutes. James good evening. I hope you will excuse all of this, but i have been taking time off from my job to look into something important to all of us that seems to be confused. What i mean is missiles, highperformance airplanes. Why do we have so many . Why do we need both . Where are we going with all of this . A fellow asked me that question in london not so long ago. It is not a simple question, and i couldnt give him a simple answer. That is the reason for all this homework. It seems to me that weve got to understand just what we are building, how each of these missiles and airplanes add to our deterrence strength, and why we have developed them and what they do. I would like to tell you what i wish i had been able to tell that fellow in london not very long ago. Some of you may remember i was a bomber pilot in world war ii. That was back when the air force inventory was a relatively simple one. There were longrange heavy bombers like this one. I flew one of these, a b24. Matter of fact this is some of , my handiwork as a model airplane builder. The kids make them out of plastic now days, this is the oldfashioned wood type. A lot of sandpaper on it. This was my group tail mark, a black background and a horizontal white stripe. They called us truck drivers, the Fighter Pilots did. These were the trucks that delivered the payload back in those days when the air force concept of Strategic Bombing was first being applied. And it worked pretty well. Of course, we needed fighter support in order to get through. These fighters were sort of like traffic cops who cleared the way for us to berlin, hamburg, cologne. Sometimes it took some clearing. But whether these fighters fought aggressive actions or defensively as interceptors shooting the other fellow down before they could strike at us, the role was clear, they were fighters, and they fought. There were other airplanes, too. Medium bombers like this b25, carrying smaller loads. There were tactical aircraft andthere were tactical aircraf used in support of ground operations, used as artillery by the infantry. But no matter how many aircraft types and models we had then, it was easy to understand what each was for, how all of them worked together to knock the enemy out of the air and pound them out of the war. But now, it doesnt seem that simple anymore. Years have passed, times have changed quite a bit. Now we have missiles, and yet we still have airplanes. New aircraft, highperformance jets. You are tempted to think that one or the other might be able to do the job alone. Airplanes without missiles or missiles without airplanes. Hundreds and hundreds of words have been written about deterrence and air defense and Nuclear Weapons and the Ballistic Missile versus the manned and expensive bomber. But unless you are a very careful reader and have time to think things through, the only real clear idea you are liable to get is just that you are confused because there are just too many names. Matador, quayle, f100, b 58 sidewinder, thor, snark, atlas, titan, jupiter, air to air missiles, air to ground, ground to air, ground to ground. Why so much . What is it all for . How do these weapons all Work Together to defend the United States and deter an enemy attack . I will try to tell you. Lets begin with the heavy bomber because i am a little familiar with these. This b52 is essentially what the longrange heavy bomber was in world war ii. Only more so. It is faster, goes a lot farther, carries a heavier payload with more destructive power in one b52 then you could haul in all that we had in 1944 because times have changed. The bombers speed and altitude have been greatly increased. This b58 flies faster than any bomber we ever had, it has to. Theyve also increased the speed and range and altitude capability of the counter weapons that can knock the heavy bomber down, weapons comparable to our own f104, or any ground to air rockets the other side might have. In fact, that is what war is all about. It is always the same old story of action and counteraction of a new weapon designed to catch the enemy offguard and a second weapon to counteract the first. Every aircraft and every missile we have today has been developed within this pattern to prepare or meet some new unexpected weapon. Look at the b52 again. Fast as she is and high as she flies, she is conceivably vulnerable to interception or ground to air weapons defending a target area. Therefore, some bombers are armed with weapons that both extend their range and increase their capability of selfdefense by enabling them to avoid these heavily defended targets. Launched from altitude, these missiles can carry a Nuclear Warhead many hundreds of miles, impacting with accuracy. That means hitting the target right on the nose from relative safety several hundred miles away. And you know what that means to the men on these bomber crews. That means a good percentage of them will stand a good chance of getting home. You want to remember how important these crew men are to us. Consider this, though. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles are built to do exactly what longrange bombers are built to do, to carry a heavy payload to a target hundreds or thousands of miles away. So why use the bomber . Why risk any of these men . Why not use the missile . A long range or intercontinental Ballistic Missile has one big advantage over manned aircraft, you can get it up in a matter of minutes and racing towards the target as long as you are sure you want it to go where it is going and do what it has to do, but you cant call it back, and you cant change its course. The commander can closely direct the flight of every single manned bomber in the air night and day around the clock. Sac headquarters knows where every one of its bombers is. , flightividual aircraft of three or more squadrons, and air force with a whole command as any threatoyed develops. Once launched, the whole attack can be diverted or called off. That is what the pilot adds to your defense, that priceless flexibility and the further capability no missile has of seeking out targets that arent precisely known or cannot be pinpointed on a map. With his added ability to observe and make a decision based on all the evidence he has, the pilot is your best guarantee there wont be any mistakes. But if the chips are down, he and his crew are there to deliver the load. And yet, the missiles are there to back them up. Longrange strategic muscles already fire down the entire 5000mile missile test range successfully, some of them already in the air force inventory, some of them soon to be, and others coming along, projected, planned, designed, incorporating everything weve learned from every missile weve designed and built. Heres one weve already got launched by rocket engines developing tons of thrust and millions of horsepower within seconds, imparting speeds faster than 10,000 miles an hour, this throws a Nuclear Warhead over 5000 miles with accuracy. But this is only an evolutionary step toward the more effective missiles we will have only a few short years from now. And yet, even though we have the icbm, we still have the b47 jet bomber, probably our best known intermediate range carrier, and i think one of the finest airplanes ever built. For the last six or seven years, it has been the allaround workhorse of the Strategic Air command, capable of the delivering Nuclear Weapons to almost any target we might have to strike. And just as the icbm blends with the longrange manned bomber, there are intermediate range Ballistic Missiles supporting the b47. Operational missiles successfully fire 1500 miles or more to pose an additional effective counter threat along the same parameter defended by the manned b47 now. Right here, it begins to get more complex because there are other missiles working with our aircraft. It is not just a question of having a longrange bomber and an intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or having a b47 and an intermediate range missile. These weapons alone arent enough to guarantee survival. Lets look at that longrange bomber again and see what it takes to get it through to the target now. Because it is big enough to carry auxiliary equipment and crew, this bomber has a good chance of survival at any operating altitude. The crew can select the best altitude and tactics for penetrating enemy defenses and put the load exactly where they want it to go. This auxiliary equipment includes diversionary missiles that we can drop or launch from the air to expose, decoy, or destroy ground weapons. This diversionary or countermeasures missile is a strategic weapon. They all Work Together to get the payload through and knock the enemy out of the war. That is sacs role in the air force mission today. But that is just part of the story. Jet airplanes, icbms, they put the United States well within range of just about anybody who would like to take a crack at us. Sacs deterrent force, its longrange capability has so far prevented that. Its air Defense Command responsibility to make sure if the other fellow decides to come on over, he will not get through. When any identified flying object enters our radar, the system is at once alerted. The fighter interceptor scrambles to make a positive identification. If it is a hostile intruder, the pilot notifies the Defense Commander and attacks. Other Fighter Aircraft are then scrambled out so maximum force can be brought to bear on the attacking force before the enemy can get in range to release their surfacetoair missiles. The old machine gun and the 275 rocket from world war ii are obsolete now. Today these aircraft carry missiles like this one, either a beam rider or infrared homing missle. Or this one here, another infrared homing or target seeking guided missile. Or this one. Some consider it the best of all, these air launch missiles. This is actually a rocket with an atomic warhead, a highly effective defensive weapon. But if the attacking force still penetrates within range, our surface to air missiles then take over. This interceptor missile is a dependable and accurately guided missile with an effective range up to 200 miles. It will have a 400mile range in the near future. In addition, it is a real good weapon at the altitudes where those fighters cant operate too well. Control provided by sage centers enables employment of Fighter Aircraft and surfacetoair missiles in the same airspace. So you see, this missile and the fighter employed as interceptor are complementary to each other in defending us against air attack. That is the air Defense Command story today, but there is one other area of air force responsibility, tactical air. While it is essential in a general war tactical air is , particularly tailored for local or small wars. During 1958, the composite air strike force, the firemen of the air forces deployed to the , middle and far east. In the lebanese situation, f100d aircraft flew nonstop with night inflight refueling from myrtle beach, south carolina, to turkey in a little more than 12 hours. The Tactical Fighter is a multipurpose weapon. It delivers Nuclear Weapons by divebombing straight down into the target, toss bombing, and by what the trade calls over the shoulder bombing. The Tactical Fighter also has an air superiority mission using homing missiles to gain superiority. And it has a key Ground Support role in land battles to attain contain the numerically superior forces of an enemy. There are tactical missiles too that blend with or support tactical aircraft. This one for instance, electronically controlled from the ground, it can travel 500 or miles at an altitude of 35,000 feet to carry either a conventional or Nuclear Warhead deep into enemy territory. A number of tactical missile groups armed with this weapon are already deployed in europe, and incidentally, one on formosa. What is it called . Ive deliberately avoided calling any of these weapons by name because there are so many of them. Youve heard about icbms and irbms, im 99 and tm76, sm 75, and then youve heard the same weapons called falcon, hound dog, matador, and it all just adds to the confusion. Because, why so many . Why are there sometimes two or three different kinds of a particular missile type . Why atlas and titan and minuteman . Arent they all icbms . That is right. They are, but they are related. They are not identical. They are not triplets or twins. Each of these weapons represents a new generation. Some are good, some better, some not good at all because they have been made obsolete, but each one was the best weapon we could develop for a specific purpose at the time each of these missiles was designed and engineered. Taking all of them together, each of these weapons has been and many still are important bricks in the defensive wall with which up until now we have managed to keep the peace. But if this is the answer today, missiles and aircraft blending together, complementing each other, where do we go from here . What Weapons Systems will we be years from now . Over what ranges and at what speeds and altitude will would have to defend ourselves next . Is it possible that a lowflying, slowmoving atomic powered manned airplane might set aside all these missiles and airplanes we are building now . Maybe. Although it sounds like a bomber pilots dream. Maybe it would plug one more gap in the free worlds defensive wall. Because maybe the trend five years from now will still be up. That is the way it has always been. Ever since this. I didnt build this one. It is too tough. But this is a model of the Wright Brothers airplane they flew back in kitty hawk in 1903. Ever since then, the trend has been up to increasing speed and increasing altitude, flying higher and farther and faster than the other fellow. But right about here in the early days of world war ii on flights above 10,000 and 15,000 feet, we encountered something new. Because of the thinning of the air, pilots and crew men first began to take their own groundlevel atmosphere along with them, but the race for speed and altitude went on. And for quite some time now, the military aircraft has been a sealed vehicle, traveling at altitudes at which man cannot normally survive without wearing special clothing and taking oxygen with him. Not slowly, but almost by leaps and bounds, this aircraft has been evolving towards a true spacecraft. Because what is space, or what is the difference between air and space . Where does air come to an end, and where does space begin . Maybe there isnt any difference. Maybe except for the thinning of the atmosphere, air and space are the same thing. Maybe as far as flight is concerned, air force crews have been making space flight ever since they first left their natural habitat in 1942. If that is true, todays highperformance jet aircraft is more than ever a spacecraft. This mornings flight of an air force bomber crew at speeds in excess of mach 1 and altitudes of over 60,000 feet, very much like the experience men will will have on their first flight in tomorrows true spacecraft. The day of that first space flight isnt that far away either. As we go racing into the future, the airplane and the Ballistic Missile get closer and closer together, each one evolving towards the ideal long range weapons system, combining the advantages of both. One you can get right off the ground at maximum speed and up to altitude, but also one that you can divert or recall. You give this experimental airplane the speed and altitude the missile has, or put this cockpit or control panel that detached in its block house now, put that back into the missile airframe and give the pilot the equipment he needs to withstand acceleration and heat and overcome weightlessness of zero gravity. You look these problems and a few more like them and you will not have a manned and a missile, you will have an air force pilot in a spacecraft. Man will be in space. That may happen a whole lot sooner than we think it will. Space is for us what the unknown land once was, the uncharted sea. A place into which all of mans history, everything he is and all he has ever been and done compels him to move. He has no choice. And like the explorers of the past, he may have to fight up there. That is why the air force has to do what it has always had to do, get up higher and go faster than the other fellow because war, if it comes, it will not confine itself to air, but it will expand into the billions of space miles surrounding it. That is the only way it all makes sense. Missiles and airplanes both defending us today and manned spacecraft tomorrow. Now, i dont know whether i have answered all the questions we started off with. Why so many weapons . What are they for . What are we doing with this big force . I think we are buying more than the aircraft and the missiles we have been talking about. I think we are buying peace. I think we are investing in the future by deterring war. We have to because, look here. The lights are on in my house tonight