Editing Safeguard Program (section)

{{Short description|System designed to protect U.S. missile silos}}
[[File:SRMSC MSR HAER ND-9-B.jpg|thumb|The [[Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex]] Missile Site Radar, one of the prominent features of the only completed complex under the Safeguard Program; radar and underground control building on the right, underground power plant on the left.]]

The '''Safeguard Program''' was a [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] [[anti-ballistic missile]] (ABM) system designed to protect the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]]'s [[LGM-30 Minuteman|Minuteman ICBM]] silos from attack, thus preserving the US's nuclear deterrent fleet. It was intended primarily to protect against the very small [[People's Republic of China|Chinese]] [[ICBM]] fleet, limited [[USSR|Soviet]] attacks and various other limited-launch scenarios. A full-scale attack by the Soviets would easily overwhelm it. It was designed to allow gradual upgrades to provide similar lightweight coverage over the entire United States over time.

Safeguard was the ultimate development of an ever-changing series of designs produced by [[Bell Labs]] that started in the 1950s with the [[LIM-49 Nike Zeus]].<ref>{{cite journal
|journal=The Bell System Technical Journal
|year=1975
|title=Safeguard Data-Processing System
|quote=Western Electric was the prime contractor for the Safeguard system and Bell Laboratories was responsible for the design
|url=http://srmsc.org/ref1040.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|journal=Aerospace Power
|title= Maintaining Friendly Skies: Rediscovering Theater Aerospace Defense
|author1=Lester W. Grau |author2=Jacob W. Kipp
|date=1 July 2002
|quote=Although it was never fielded, it evolved into the Spartan missile. }}</ref> By 1960 it was clear that Zeus offered almost no protection against a sophisticated attack using decoys. A new design emerged, [[Nike-X]], with the ability to defend against attacks with hundreds of warheads and thousands of decoys, but the cost of the system was enormous. Looking for alternatives, the [[Sentinel program]] offered a lightweight cover that would protect against limited attacks. Sentinel began construction in 1968 but ran into a firestorm of protest over its bases being placed in suburban areas. In March 1969, incoming President [[Richard M. Nixon]] announced that Sentinel would be cancelled and redirected to protect the missile farms, and that its bases would be placed well away from any civilian areas.

The debate about ABM protection of US ICBMs had been going on for over a decade when Safeguard was announced, and the arguments against such a system were well known both in the military and civilian circles. In military circles, the most basic argument against Safeguard was that adding an ABM requires the Soviets to build another ICBM to counter it, but the same is true if the US builds another ICBM instead. The Air Force was far more interested in building more of their own ICBMs than Army ABMs, and lobbied against the Army continually. In the public sphere, opinion by the late 1960s was anti-military in general, and in an era of ongoing [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks]] the entire concept was derided as sabre rattling. Safeguard had been developed to calm opposition but found itself just as heavily opposed. Nixon pressed ahead in spite of objections and complaints about limited performance, and the reasons for his strong support remains a subject of debate among historians and political commentators.

Through the Safeguard era, talks between the US and Soviet Union originally started by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] were continuing. The [[Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty]] of 1972 limited the US and Soviet Union to two ABM sites each. Safeguard was scaled back to sites in [[North Dakota]] and [[Montana]], abandoning initial work at a site in Missouri, and cancelling all other planned bases. Construction on the two remaining bases continued until 1974, when an additional agreement limited both countries to a single ABM site. The Montana site was abandoned with the main radar partially completed. The remaining base in North Dakota, the [[Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex]], became active on 1 April 1975 and fully operational on 1 October 1975. By that time the [[United States House Committee on Appropriations|House Appropriations Committee]] had already voted to deactivate it.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Safeguard ABM System to Shut Down
|work=New York Times
|date=25 November 1975
|author=John W. Finney
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/25/archives/safeguard-abm-system-to-shut-down-5-billion-spent-in-6-years-since.html
|quote=the utility of Safeguard to protect Minuteman will be essentially nullified in the future}}</ref> The base was shut down on 10 February 1976.