Today in 1953, as part of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inaugural parade, a demonstration model of the massive M65 280-millimeter atomic cannon rumbled down Pennsylvania Avenue and in front of the White House. It was tested four months later at the Nevada Proving Ground.
Four years to the day later, Eisenhower’s 1957 inaugural parade featured the Air Force’s Matador and Snark cruise missiles as well as the Army’s Corporal short-range ballistic missile, all of which were armed with nuclear warheads (although not for the parade).
President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural parade included four nuclear missiles, all operated by the Army: the Pershing I intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Lacrosse short-range missile, the Nike Hercules air defense missile, and the Nike Zeus antiballistic missile.
Kennedy’s parade that year also featured a float celebrating the Navy’s new George Washington-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine and its 16 nuclear-armed Polaris A1 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, whose first at-sea patrol (66 days) ended the very next day.
There was also a float from Tennessee, home of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, promoting Atoms for Peace. Ann Ellington, the daughter of Governor Buford Ellington, rode the float and waved to the crowd.
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