"In a sense, everyone who lived through the cold war is a cold war veteran," says Professor Sharlet, the C. H. Winters professor of political science at Union College in Schenectady.
		Many baby-boomers recall vivid memories of cold-war duck-and-cover drills at school and breathlessly monitoring the space race.  The promises of the Atomic Age could energize or destroy human life on Earth.

"The SAGE computer was a marvel not seen in civilian circles," said Chris McWilliams, a retired Air Force major who worked as a radar operator at the building from 1957 to 1960. "Compared to the older manual radar consoles, the SAGE consoles looked like something out of Buck Rogers."

Hidden inside the lead-shielded blockhouse, Major McWilliams and hundreds of others kept a close watch on American skies, wary of a possible Soviet attack.  Every radar echo was tracked and cross-checked, investigated and cataloged to determine whether it was an enemy bomber en route to destroy America.
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PROGRAM IDEAS

Our aim is to foster an ongoing dialogue. The central questions to be examined are: What are the lessons of the Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union? What impact did the conflict have upon life in the United States, upon political institutions, communities, schools, universities and individuals? What were the enduring impacts of the Cold War and what is the relevance of all this to today’s issues of war and of peace?

The museum’s approach will, at all times, be scholarly and educational. It must not become the captive of any vested interest or ideology. Rather, it will seek to engage people in reflecting upon and discussing the issues. For example, was the doctrine of “Mutual Assured Destruction” (MAD) a mechanism for preserving the peace, or was it a near disaster? The museum will examine the Soviet Union itself. Did the Soviet Union collapse due to its own contradictions or as the result of how America conducted the Cold War?

SAMPLE MUSEUM FEATURES

• Permanent and temporary interpretive exhibits featuring Cold War era artifacts, most importantly the building itself.
• Reconstructed War Room with re-enactments based upon extant Air Force logs and records.
• The continuous screening of films dealing with the Cold War, i.e. Dr. Strangelove, and Seven Days in May, as well as Department of Defense training films designed to alert the American public.
• Reconstruction of a typical family fallout shelter.
• An exhibition of the development of the computer. (Modern computers were developed to meet the needs of national defense and the internet was originally developed for the Defense Department.)
• Science and The Cold War: sections will be devoted to the Space Race, as well as the development of advanced computer technology.
• A mock-up classroom from that era, with a display of lesson plans, air-raid drill instructions and children’s art work related to Cold War themes.
• A collection of oral histories and recollections, from those who actually worked in the SAGE building and others who lived through the period.
• Psychological demonstration: What would it take to get you to push the button?
• Video presentations: collections of Cold War specials, such as the CNN’s Peabody award-winning Cold War documentary.
• Organized outreach programs to regional schools and colleges.
• An examination of the effects of The Cold War upon America itself.
  • What was the “Red Menace”? What were the various “red scares”?
  • How did the division of the country in response to the Vietnamese war relate to the Cold War?
  • How were civil rights struggles influenced by the Cold War?
  • How did feminism, radicalism and the counterculture reflect Cold War issues?
• An exhibit of aircraft which flew from Stewart Air Base during the Cold War era
• An examination of the military history of the Hudson Valley, beginning with General Washington’s chain across the Hudson, to the electronic surveillance chain, which included the SAGE building.