Grand Forks Air Force Base Painted Murals, Missile Alert Facility Charlie-Zero, Grand Forks, Grand Forks County, ND

Significance: Beginning with the end of World War II and continuing to the present, the Cold War and the resulting arms race between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has formed an overarching theme for the cultures of both countries. The United States has based its foreign policy of strategic deterrence on an arsenal of nuclear weapons based from submarines, airborne bombers, and on land. As the land-based leg of the United States triad, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear warheads represent the definitive technological refinement for weapons of mass destruction. They reflect the philosophy of a contemporary military establishment that hold high technology, rather than brute force, as the ultimate extension of military power.
Survey number: HAER ND-13-G
Building/structure dates: 1995 Initial Construction