1950s: Korea and the Cold War

With the Korean War and the intensification of the Cold War, the role of analysis in defense planning expanded throughout the 1950s. Once the Soviets had detonated their first thermonuclear device, the United States had to revise its thinking on many critical defense issues. As the consequences of nuclear war loomed and the cost of military preparedness escalated, the government, more than ever, needed reliable scientific information on which to base its strategic decision-making.

The Korean War

During the Korean War OEG analysts worked in the field collecting data, solving tactical problems, and recommending improvements in procedures, expanding its major efforts on such specific tactical problems as:  selection of weapons for naval air attacks on tactical targets, scheduling of close air support, analysis of air-to-air combat, Naval gunfire in shore bombardment, blockade tactics, and interdiction of land transportation.

In addition, correspondence between the field representatives and Washington, and discussions in Washington with representatives returning from the field, enabled the organization to adjust its research to be as useful as possible to the operating commands. By the end of the war, OEG had 60 research staff members.

Post-Korea

After the war major technological advances, particularly in the fields of atomic energy and guided missiles, changed the nature of much of OEG’s activity. Issue areas were broadened to include the possible enemy use of nuclear weapons and the effect of U.S. policies and weapon system choices on the nature of wars the United States would have to be prepared to fight.

In 1955 OEG created the Naval Warfare Analysis Group (NavWAG) to help support the Chief of Naval Operations’ Long-Range Objectives Group in examining such strategic issues a the "missile gap." The group also made recommendations concerning the posture the United States should adopt in the coming decades address issues of strategic balance and to formulate U.S. military needs on both a nuclear and conventional level.

1960s:  The Vietnam Era