As the author notes, "CONAD [NORAD's predecessor] had a vested interest in PR campaigns as well as military ones. It was primed, basically, to take advantage of the good cheer of Christmas for its own ends—among them, promoting its military technology." Still, the image of a hard-bitten officer waiting for the Rooskies to launch the inevitable sneak attack, getting instead a call from a little girl looking for Santa, kinda tugs at the heartstrings. Maybe -- just maybe -- that occasional reminder of childhood innocence helped keep the war furor and paranoia in check and helped up survive the Cold War.
NORAD Tracks Santa's Path on Christmas Eve Because of a Typo (The Atlantic)
It was 1955, and Christmas was approaching, and Sears had a new idea for a yuletide gimmick. In local newspapers, the department store placed ads ... on behalf of Santa himself.
"HEY, KIDDIES!" the ad read, in a greeting that would seem creepy only in retrospect. "Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time day or night."
The ads then listed local numbers for area children to call to get some one-on-one Kringle time....
Like many innovations, though, Sears's frictionless Santa scheme found itself with an unforeseen problem. In the ad the company had placed in the local paper in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sears had listed Santa's number as ME 2-6681. Which, according to Snopes, contained a typo: It was one digit off of the intended one. The number Sears had ended up printing and distributing to the city's citizens? The one for, as it happened, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD)—the predecessor of NORAD—which, like Santa, specialized in aeronautics. And which, unlike Santa, was based in Colorado Springs.