November 7

This Day in History

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Lead Story
Magic Johnson announces he is HIV-positive, 1991
American Revolution
Post office stays in the Franklin family, 1776
Automotive
Art Arfons sets land-speed record, 1965
Civil War
North and South clash at the Battle of Belmont, 1861
Cold War
Gaither Report calls for more U.S. missiles and fallout shelters, 1957
Crime
A family is brutally murdered, 1983
Disaster
Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses, 1940
General Interest
Canada's transcontinental railway completed, 1885
Tacoma Bridge collapses, 1940
FDR reelected a record third time, 1944
Two African American firsts in politics, 1989
Hollywood
"King of Cool" Steve McQueen dies, 1980
Literary
French novelist Albert Camus is born, 1913
Music
Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is born, 1943
Old West
Jeannette Rankin becomes first U.S. congresswoman, 1916
Presidential
FDR wins unprecedented fourth term, 1944
Sports
Magic Johnson announces he has HIV, 1991
Vietnam War
U.S. intelligence asserts numbers of North Vietnamese in South Vietnam growing, 1964
McNamara shouted down at Harvard speech, 1966
Nixon re-elected president, 1972
World War I
First issue of The New Republic published, 1914
World War II
Soviet master spy is hanged by the Japanese, 1944

Cold War

Nov 7, 1957:

Gaither Report calls for more U.S. missiles and fallout shelters

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The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation's defense readiness indicates that the United States is falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens.

The special committee had been called together shortly after the stunning news of the success of the Soviet Sputnik I in October 1957. Headed by Ford Foundation Chairman H. Rowan Gaither, the committee concluded that the United States was in danger of losing a war against the Soviets. Only massive increases in the military budget, particularly an accelerated program of missile construction, could hope to deter Soviet aggression. It also suggested that American citizens were completely unprotected from nuclear attack and proposed a $30 billion program to construct nationwide fallout shelters.

Although the committee's report was supposed to be secret, many of its conclusions soon leaked out to the press, causing a minor panic among the American people. President Eisenhower was less impressed. Intelligence provided by U-2 spy plane flights over Russia indicated that the Soviets were not the mortal threat suggested by the Gaither Report. Eisenhower, a fiscal conservative, was also reluctant to commit to the tremendously increased military budget called for by the committee. He did increase funding for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and for civil defense programs, but ignored most of the other recommendations made in the report. Democrats instantly went on the attack, charging that Eisenhower was leaving the United States open to Soviet attack. By 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy was still hammering away at the supposed "missile gap" between the United States and much stronger Soviet stockpiles.

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This Week in History, Nov 7 - Nov 13

Nov 07, 1957
Gaither Report calls for more U.S. missiles and fallout shelters
Nov 08, 1960
John F. Kennedy elected president
Nov 09, 1989
East Germany opens the Berlin Wall
Nov 10, 1982
Leonid Brezhnev dies
Nov 11, 1973
Soviet Union refuses to play Chile in World Cup Soccer
Nov 12, 1982
Yuri Andropov assumes power in the Soviet Union
Nov 13, 1953
Indiana Textbook Commission member charges that Robin Hood is communistic

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