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One Nation Under Ground Civil Defense in the U.S.

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Title: One Nation Under Ground Civil Defense in the U.S. Author: W. Patrick McCray Last modified by: W. Patrick McCray Created Date: 10/15/2003 10:06:07 PM – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: One Nation Under Ground Civil Defense in the U.S.


1
One Nation Under GroundCivil Defense in the U.S.
Meet Bert the Turtle from a 1950 civil defense
film
2
Civil Defense in the Atomic Age
  • Merging of Cold War military ethics with the cult
    of domesticity.
  • Allows us to see larger currents of American
    history
  • Ex should the govt encourage public shelters
    (communistic) or private ones (American-
    style)?
  • What was the proper amount of militarization of
    civilian society?
  • Consider this all in light of govt response to
    9/11

3
Civil Defense Institutionalized
  • Prior to 1950 little attention to civil
    defense. This changed with Joe-1 and Korea.
  • January 1951 Truman creates the Federal Civil
    Defense Administration (FCDA).
  • Motto Survive, Recover, and Win
  • Role Education and training raise Americas
    bomb consciousness with practical matters of
    implementation left to state and city level
    (shades of 9/11?)

4
  • Question of civil defense touched on many other
    issues in American history
  • Civilian vs. military control and creation of a
    garrison state.
  • The proper role of government and citizen
    entitlements. Whose responsibility was civil
    defense?
  • Active (bomb, missiles male) vs. passive
    (comfort, aid female)
  • Civil defense should reflect the American Way of
    Life

5
  • Civil defense debate, in other words, reflected
    larger political agenda and issues of the day.

6
Preaching the Gospel of Self-Help
  • Cold War militarization turned into individual
    citizens responsibility.
  • Sec. of Def. Robert McNamara (1961)
  • certainly the Federal Government, the State,
    and the local governments all have parts to play,
    but most importantly, its the responsibility of
    each individual to prepare himself and his family
    for that thermonuclear strike.

7
  • Why self-help?
  • FCDA had a limited vision of the assistance it
    would provide to citizens and for how long.

8
  • One citizens indignant response to DIY
  • The legislators have passed the buck to the
    individual citizen. They have in effect said
    every American family for itself and the devil
    take the hindmost.

9
A is for Atom, B is for Bomb School Children
and Civil Defense
  • Civil defense as antidote to atomic panic and
    anxiety.
  • Panic was a major concern press mentioned
    panic 13 times more in 1953 than in 1948.
  • Educational material sanitized words like
    atomic warfare replaced by major emergency.

10
  • Two major efforts aimed at kids
  • Air raid drills
  • Identification efforts.

11
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12
Duck and cover drill 1951
13
Changes to School Architecture
  • Double duty philosophy as administrators
    justified changes in school design to reasons not
    associated with civil defense.
  • Ex The Wall of Light design done away
    with...fewer windows better for AV purposes and
    also was safer.

14
Domesticating the Bomb
  • Civil defense integrated into safety education
    and home economics classes. Attempts to tame
    the Bomb and make the unthinkable ordinary.
  • Ex decorating and stocking a shelter
  • Spokeswoman for National Education Association
    nuclear attack as another potential hazard of
    modern living
  • Air raid drills compared to fire drills

15
Educating the Public
  • Selling civil defense one of FCDAs major tasks.
  • Enlists the help of Madison Avenue advertising
    experts.
  • Stressed idea that civil defense was a moral
    defense self-help praised and dependency
    stigmatized.
  • These efforts also tended to put a happy face on
    the Bomb

16
  • 1951 pamphlet Survival Under Atomic Attack
  • Atom splitting is just another way of causing an
    explosion
  • Should you happen to be one of the unlucky
    people right under the bomb, there is practically
    no hope of living through itBeyond 2 miles, the
    explosion will cause practically no death at
    all.

17
  • Facts About Fallout a government publication
    from 1955.

18
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19
Civil Defense as Representative of American
Culture
  • 4 Wheels to Survival

20
Alerting the Public
  • Creation of a civil defense infrastructure
  • Air raid sirens, interstate highway system
  • CONELRAD National alerting system establish by
    Truman in 1951

21
The Iconography of Civil Defense
22
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23
Civil Defense Barbie and Ken??
24
Civil Defense eye candy
25
Civil Defensereal candy.
700 calories a dayyum.
26
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27
Andof course, the inevitable pit toilet.
28
Civil Defense Class and Race
  • Self-help and privatization of shelter was
    predicated on suburbanization and home/car
    ownership.
  • What about the rest of us?
  • Labor how would industrial production be
    organized after an atomic war? Workers rights?
  • Policy of industrial decentralization pursued
    therefore, suburban industrial parks.

29
  • Civil defense for minorities and poor
  • Jim Crow and Civil Defense
  • Idea of class competition for shelters and thus
    survival.
  • Racial fears in white America
  • NAACP used civil defense to bring racial
    inequality to the fore fusion of civil rights
    and civil defense

30
Part TwoFrom Duck and Cover to Run Like
Hell
  • Civil defense in the era of the hydrogen bomb and
    the ICBM.
  • Operation Cue (1955)
  • Mass Evacuation Plans Operation Alert
    (1954-1961) and the Interstate Highway System
  • The Shelter Movement

31
Operation Cue
  • 1955 depiction of an atomic attack on a typical
    American town.

32
Operation Cue test shot
33
One of the buildings that survived the atomic
bomb at Operation Cue. This building was on
display at the Nebraska State Fair in 1955.
34
Nuclear Family
35
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36
One of the houses of Doom Town lit by light
from atomic explosion
37
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38
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39
  • Before and After pictures show survival as a
    morality play and public relations effort.
  • Helped define who and what would survive a
    nuclear attack.

40
Operation Alert
  • Series of civil defense drills from 1954-1961.
  • Took places simultaneously in dozens of U.S.
    cities citizens were told they were in target
    areas and were required to take cover.
  • National socio-drama

41
  • Evacuation and shelter techniques practiced.
  • 1955 Even the federal government (including
    Eisenhower) were evacuated.
  • The day after a drill, newspapers would publish
    statistics with numbers of casualties and so
    forth.
  • Operation Alert also became focus of numerous
    peace protests by people (especially mothers) who
    refused to run for cover.

42
New Yorkers scurry for shelter during Operation
Alert.
43
Civil Defense for Congress
  • Door to secret fallout shelter for Congress in
    White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia.

44
  • Despite the drills, Eisenhower remained deeply
    pessimistic about success of evacuation.
  • You cant have that kind of warThere just
    arent enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies of
    the streets.

45
  • Planners, however, maintained the fiction that a
    mass evacuation under nuclear attack was more
    akin to an evening rush hour commute.i.e. escape
    to the suburbs!

46
Popular Joke in the Soviet Union in the 1960s
  • Q What should you do in case of a nuclear
    attack.
  • Get a shovel and a sheet and walk slowlyto the
    nearest cemetery.
  • Why slowly?
  • You mustnt start a panic.

47
The Shelter Movement
48
Early Shelter Debate During Truman Era
  • Public shelters vs. private shelters?
  • Early plans for public shelters were also used by
    urban planners to achieve other goals
  • New Deal fears
  • Dislike of Soviet-style public shelters
  • Cost (estimated 32 billion in 1956)

49
Renewed Interest During Eisenhower Era
  • Evacuation combined with personal shelters.
  • More of Youre on your own
  • Little to no tax incentive to build personal
    shelters.
  • Civil defense still competed with Pentagon
    requests to build more bombs and missiles.

50
  • Symbolism of the personal shelter
  • Shelters seen as representing basic American
    values

51
What the well-stocked bomb shelter has this
yearcirca 1961.
  • Supplies include 14-day food supply that could
    be stored indefinitely, a battery-operated radio,
    auxiliary light sources, a two-week supply of
    water, and first aid, sanitary, and other
    miscellaneous equipment, ca.1957.

52
Shelters in Practice
  • Despite the attention given to private backyard
    shelters in the 1950s, the number built was very
    low.
  • Family shelter program more of a policy issue,
    public curiosity, and media hype than actual
    construction boom.
  • Why?

53
Fallout Shelter Crisis, 1960-62
  • Nuclear-tipped ICBM now the main threat.
  • J.F. Kennedy determined to make awake U.S. from
    apathy and make shelter a priority.
  • April 1961 JFK urges citizens to plan to
    protect their own families.
  • Federal civil defense agency gets 6000 letters a
    day.
  • Intense interest in private shelters

54
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55
  • Nuclear disarmament groups attack shelter idea,
    claiming they would serve no purpose and
    encourage false confidence.
  • Also, as before, debates over who would be saved
  • John Kenneth Galbraith in letter to Kennedy
    called civil defense plans a design for saving
    Republicans and sacrificing Democrats
  • Moral questions sparked as some clergy were asked
    whether people had Christian duty to let others
    into their shelters.

56
  • As the Berlin crisis cooled, the panic subsided
    someuntil October 1962.
  • Like before, when the crisis ended, civil defense
    itself went back underground until the Reagan
    years.

57
  • Reagan yearscivil defense gets renewed
    attention.
  • Now under control of Federal Emergency Management
    Agency (FEMA)
  • Proposes 7 year plan costing 4.2B
  • Giggle or shiver?

58
  • During Reagan administration, one spokesman for
    civil defense (in)famously spoke
  • Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors, and
    then throw three feet of dirt on top. Its the
    dirt that does it Everyones going to make it if
    there are enough shovels to go around.
  • Thomas K. Jones, 1981, as reported in the LA
    Times
  • Hmmmmight there be a shovel gap between the US
    and the USSR?

59
9/11 and Nuclear FearsFrom duck and cover to
duct and smother?
60
Parallels Between Then and Now
  • Make a kit, Make a plan, and Be prepared
  • From Dept. of Homeland Security)
  • Return to Youre on your own?
  • Renewed militarization of American society after
    9-11.
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