Usually when we think of “The Cold War”, we think of the fear surrounding communism, and the policy of containment. The only technology we are shown is that of the nuclear bomb. In class, we are informed of the ENIAC. The ENIAC was the first digitized computer that could track and predict missile trajectories. It is made of 19000 vacuum tubes, and could only produce a small amount of power (less than a smartphone today). With the creation of the ENIAC and vacuum tubes, scientist were able to expend an create ways to get information back and forth from once source to another, without any interruption. To get this, scientist would have to develop a way to increase the strength of a vacuum tube, but without making it big and bulkier.

There were two major inventions: First the Audion (Lee Deforest), and then the Transistor. Bot of them were created to amplify the signal of the electricity generated in the vacuum tubes, so that no information would be dropped or lost.

The main reason for this blog post is to question why we don’t credit the Cold War as years of importance, and really the start of the technological boom? In school we just learned that the cold war was a nuclear issue, and that the government was trying to stop communism. No one ever mentioned how the start of computers, and even the internet, were essentially created at that time. Not only that, but we improved our road system, and came up with the GI Bill. Is it possible that people try to forget these things because of the turbulent and troubling past of the United States during that time? Maybe. But I’m glad I finally realized the importance of the Cold War.