We were motivated to protect ourselves.

Origins Of The Nike System
http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/N-view.html

Hitting a Bullet with a Bullet
A History of Missile Defense
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a381863.pdf

Interesting how the "NIMBY" kneejerk manifested. Thanks, DTIC!
See also Chicago

Detractors in Hyde Park
“Two unmistakable attributes of Cold War culture were conformity and fear. There was a great deal of centrism, as it was understood at the time,” Allen says, “because it was still thought that Americans must ban together, regardless of their differences, to beat a common foe.”
Still, there were citizens who raised concerns about the missile programs; some used the “not in my backyard” argument, calling the missile installations unsightly. Others questioned the need for the weapons.
The Hyde Park area was a hotbed for protest on both fronts, as Chicago’s southernmost lakefront missile site was, after all, in that neighborhood's backyard. A 1955 Chicago Tribune article mentions that members of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference “vigorously protested” construction of a radar center on Promontory Point. That didn’t stop the Army from installing it, however.
https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-c...c-75480a3d4cb7