Weather control – not typically what springs to mind when considering the Cold War, science, and the environment. Coupling the terms Cold War and science generally suggests physics, which, after all, was behind rocketry, warheads, and the space race. But no less important to government leaders trying to win the Cold War – militarily or diplomatically – were the physical environmental sciences, oceanography and meteorology in particular. Oceanography is an obvious Cold War science: antisubmarine warfare was critical to the United States' defense posture, and the ability to exploit the ocean environment to hide and find submarines was extremely important to military strategy. However, meteorology was equally important: not only because atmospheric conditions affected the performance of aircraft, missiles, and rockets and influenced the ability of ships at sea and troops on the battlefield to carry out their assigned missions, but also because weather had the potential to be used as a weapon.

Indeed, for some military officials, weather control appeared to be an ideal tool. It could be used offensively to fog in an enemy runway to hamper air operations, to muddy up a field before a battle to ensnare tanks and troops, or to destroy enemy crops by inducing drought or hail. Alternatively, weather control could be used defensively by allowing runways to remain shrouded in fog and then cleared just in time to launch or recover a squadron of aircraft, to create fog in a battlefield to confuse the enemy and thus provide an advantage to allied forces, or to provide sufficient precipitation to ensure an adequate food supply on the home front.