World War II spurred a huge leap in missile technology as the Germans introduced the V2, considered the first ballistic missile, and after the war German V1 and V2 rockets were recovered and brought to the United States for study at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, much of it with the assistance of German engineers and technicians who had consented to join the program. This research began the evolution of United States ballistic missile technology and set the stage for the Army Air Defense Command under Lt. Gen. Stanley R. Mickelsen to begin work on an anti-ballistic missile system in the years after World War II. As wartime divisions of the German Empire gave way to tensions with Stalin's communist policies, distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union deepened, and the growth of both nations' ballistic arsenals created a grave problem because existing United States air defense systems could not defend against the speed of ballistic missiles. Although it was believed the Soviets would not achieve a nuclear missile capability until 1952, the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb in August 1949, then increased fears further by successfully testing an intercontinental ballistic missile and orbiting Sputnik in 1957. After the Soviet Union announced a successful ICBM test flight, the Defense Department awarded Western Electric Corporation a contract to develop an anti-ballistic missile system, and with Bell Laboratories and subcontractors the effort advanced through the Nike-Zeus antimissile program, then the Nike X System, then the Sentinel ABM System, and was eventually fielded as the Safeguard System. Major components were tested on Kwajalein against ICBMs launched from Vandenberg AFB in California, and successful engagements proved the technology after years of pioneering research, design, testing, and development undertaken while both the United States and the Soviet Union possessed enormous arsenals of ICBMs and SLBMs. On February 20, 1969, Deputy Secretary of Defense David R. Packard presented the Nixon administration with four anti-ballistic missile options ranging from a shield around 25 major cities to cancellation, and after intense controversy within the administration, Congress, and the public, the administration decided on March 14, 1969, to deploy the system in phases with a limited deployment of 12 sites and renamed it Safeguard. Twelve Safeguard sites were proposed nationwide, and in August 1969 authorization for sites in Montana and North Dakota passed by one vote when Vice President Spiro Agnew broke a Senate tie. The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex was named for Lieutenant General Stanley Raymond Mickelsen, whose 40-year Army career spanned World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict and who was recognized specifically for his support of the ballistic missile defense program.