With an increased emphasis on air defense and missile technology at the outset of the Cold War, the role of the US Army's conventional ground forces seemed in doubt. The US Air Force achieved a position of primacy among the armed forces as it expanded its reach into outer space with a new ballistic missile force, while the US Navy set about a project of seafaring exploration and militarization with the submerged trans‐polar crossings. To counter this perception, the US Army mounted a campaign to prove its relevance in matters of technology and national defense. The key technical vehicle in this endeavor would prove to be mass media, and the staging area for the effort would be Greenland. Greenland would be the venue for the Army's most audacious appeals to the American people and the Congress to recognize its relevance to Cold War science and technology. Greenland would be called a ‘forward defense system,’ and a ‘cordon against aggression,’ and while the Air Force's bombers would be stationed on the coast at Thule, the Greenland icecap would be the realm of the US Army alone.