Excerpt from America in the Post-War Years: A History
Following the hullabaloo about supposed Soviet rocket programmes in 1946 and 1947, the concept stepped up in popularity. Pulp fiction about journeys to Mars increased in standing, with writers such as Isaac Asimov increasing about popularity. Films such as Rocket Men to the Moon paved the way for what would be the B-movies of the fifties.
This sense of excitement that would carry on into the fifites, propelled by a sense of wonder towards the nuclear bomb and the power of the atom, was accompanied by fear. Writers explored the potential for ballistic missiles, depicting stories of rockets raining down upon New York or Washington DC. In one Robert L. Hubbard story, a gigantic missile is used to split the Earth.
Now, in retrospect, the fear and worry over the Soviet missile programme, which at the time was still in very early stages, with the Soviets not yet having the capacity for mass production of such missiles just yet, was unwarranted. It mainly stemmed from right-wing pundits hoping to encourage the air of anti-communist fear that was forming as news came in from Berlin and Beijing of what was happening there.
Soviet scientists as Korolyev, as well as the famed former Nazi Wehrner Von Braun, who had defected to the Soviets in 1945, were caricatured in some popular media--the sixties film 'Dr. Lovestrange' somewhat mocks such things. The concept of the rocket scientist, bent on saving humanity or destroying it, was fairly common in pulp media at this time.
Following the hullabaloo about supposed Soviet rocket programmes in 1946 and 1947, the concept stepped up in popularity. Pulp fiction about journeys to Mars increased in standing, with writers such as Isaac Asimov increasing about popularity. Films such as Rocket Men to the Moon paved the way for what would be the B-movies of the fifties.
This sense of excitement that would carry on into the fifites, propelled by a sense of wonder towards the nuclear bomb and the power of the atom, was accompanied by fear. Writers explored the potential for ballistic missiles, depicting stories of rockets raining down upon New York or Washington DC. In one Robert L. Hubbard story, a gigantic missile is used to split the Earth.
Now, in retrospect, the fear and worry over the Soviet missile programme, which at the time was still in very early stages, with the Soviets not yet having the capacity for mass production of such missiles just yet, was unwarranted. It mainly stemmed from right-wing pundits hoping to encourage the air of anti-communist fear that was forming as news came in from Berlin and Beijing of what was happening there.
Soviet scientists as Korolyev, as well as the famed former Nazi Wehrner Von Braun, who had defected to the Soviets in 1945, were caricatured in some popular media--the sixties film 'Dr. Lovestrange' somewhat mocks such things. The concept of the rocket scientist, bent on saving humanity or destroying it, was fairly common in pulp media at this time.