John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening | Paperback With the detonation of the Trinity in the New Mexico desert in 1945, the United States took control of Earth’s destiny. During the early Cold War years, the federal government routinely tested nuclear devices. Not only was nuclear fallout a public health menace, but radioactive materials also contaminated entire ecosystems. During the 1950s, an unprecedented postwar economic boom took hold, with America becoming the world’s leading hyperindustrial and military giant. But this historic prosperity came at a heavy cost: oceans began to die, wilderness vanished, the insecticide DDT poisoned ecosystems, wildlife perished, and chronic smog blighted major cities.