Transcripts For CSPAN3 Pantex- WWII Through The Cold War 202

Here ifus would not be it was not for the coming of the railroad. Railroads were evolving and changing. Locomotivesng new coming on. We said we need to preserve some of that before it disappears. Thathave set up in the way the white train used to operate. Coach. End is the escort next to us is what is called a buffer car. By law, people cannot ride in a car adjacent to explosives. Around 1980, they modified the train. That is the sole survivor. Cup w we are up in the ola of the extra coach. It is an elevated area. This is the security perch. There would not be any difficulties with people trying to get on the train. They are blocked off right now. The furriers could use those. Pantex today is the primary assembly and disassembly unit for Nuclear Weapons and the u. S. But this really begins when the japanese attacked pearl harbor. Primary to that, we had many lend lease programs. Amarillo makes a great location. Where this exists is no accident. The railroad is hugely important. Is the most reliable form of transportation. There is no easy way to move goods throughout the u. S. It becomes a means of transportation. One of the first things people do is lay spurs off of the main railroad. Can direct that through the low land. Build thisle to quickly because they bring the materials for the railroad and to where it is going. Spurs right to where they are putting the load lines. Shelvesng in the metal and any explosives. Amarillo, because were a railroad center, its a great place to build pantex as well as the amarillo arm field, it was constructed in 1941. It existed really where the rarely airport is today, and so because amarillo is an Army Ordnance plant, and cross train, so its pretty efficient. Amarillo also had a decent size population, and youre going to need workers. Pantex at the height of our employment in 1943, we had over 5,000 employees, and all of those people needed a place to live. And so amarillo being so close provided that. A lot of Housing Options for people to live so that pantex could have, you know, the sizable work force that it needed to complete the world war ii mission. Pantex throughout the cold war has a remarkably, you know, consistent mission. Our mission was to build and dismantle Nuclear Weapons. Weve become since 1975 the primary Nuclear Weapons assemblydisassembly site in the United States. The next mission shift for us, i should say, is in 1991, when the first president bush gives his speech on unilateral dismantlement, that the United States would take it upon itself to start dismantling some of its Nuclear Weapons stockpile. We now have an unparalleled opportunity to change the Nuclear Posture of both the United States and the soviet union. If we and the soviet leaders take the right steps, some on our own, some on their own, some together, we can dramatically shrink the arsenal of the worlds Nuclear Weapons. We can more effectively discourage the spread of Nuclear Weapons. We can rely more on defensive measures in our strategic relationship. We can enhance stability and actually reduce the risk of nuclear war. Now is the time to seize this opportunity. The soviet union was sort of coming to an end when president bush gives this speech the soviet union still exists, but its just a few months later and then the soviet union falls. But so we remain pretty constant throughout the cold war and then once the cold war is ultimately over we start to shift to dismantlement. So pantex still has a vital function. Furthermore, today, were focused on life extension programs, so that we ensure that we have a safe, reliable stockpile for the future, for the United States to be a credible nuclear deterrent. When we started building Nuclear Weapons back in the 1950s we did not have a highway system. There was not a highway system in this country so almost everyone and everything traveled more by train by rail than by highway. In the meantime to move the goods, these rail cars were especially designed by National Laboratories for carrying Nuclear Weapons safely. Announcer you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at cspan. Org citiestouyr. This is American History tv, only on cspan 3. Announcer next, university of notre dame professor Darren Dochuk talks about the oil indistrys impact on American Religion and politics. Hes the author of anointed with oil how christianity and crude made modern america. The Southern Methodist University Center for president ial history and clement