The Frost Belt Peaks.

The 1950s marked the peak of the northern-midwestern industrial axis as an economic power. In 1950 the midwestern, middle Atlantic, and New England regions combined to add 67.7 percent of the total value added to manufacturing. With only 8 percent of the nation's land area, the Northeast alone had 43 percent of the U.S. population and 68 percent of the manufacturing employment. Two of the three largest banks in America were located in New York. The dense population of the Northeast gave it political power to match its economic clout: the Frost Belt (as the manufacturing belt was alternately called) carried 286 electoral votes in the presidential election of 1960, compared to 245 for the increasingly important Sun Belt.

Defense Leads the Way.

The Sun Belt was the term used to describe the southern one-third of the United States, stretching from the southeastern states across to...