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As the Cold War Loomed Large, Scouting Celebrated America’s Tradition of Liberty and Freedom

In February 1949, the Boy Scouts of America launched a two-year “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty” campaign with a torch-lighting ceremony beneath the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Similar ceremonies were conducted from coast to coast.

The need for such a program was greater than ever.

The post-World War II cold war with the Soviet Union and other communist nations had already seen a confrontation in Europe with the Berlin Airlift. In less than two years, a shooting war would erupt in Korea.

“Whether the future is to be one of freedom or despotism depends chiefly on how our young people develop,” warned BSA President Amory Houghton in an article in Scouting magazine announcing the new program, which would coincide with the BSA’s 40th anniversary in 1950.

To carry out the program, packs, troops, and Explorer posts set goals in the areas of leadership, program, and membership.

The next two years saw a variety of special activities and events, local and national. These included the 1950 Boy Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge, Pa., as well as the program that resulted in the distribution of more than 200 replicas of the Statue of Liberty nationwide.

In the December 1950 issue of Scouting magazine, the BSA concluded that “No national program of the Boy Scouts of America has ever met with such outstanding and universal acceptance as our 40th Anniversary Crusade to Strengthen the Arm of Liberty.”

The effort had been so successful, in fact, that the National Executive Board voted to continue it another year.

“It was because of the darkening world situation that we initiated the Crusade to Strengthen the Arm of Liberty,” explained Chief Scout Executive Arthur Schuck in the February 1951 issue of Scouting. “And it was because of increasingly serious world developments that the National Board voted to extend that Crusade through 1951.

“…With an ever more devoted leadership, with a constantly improving program, and a membership which becomes larger and stronger hour by hour, we can and will do our best to serve our country well in this time of great need.”

—Jon C. Halter