Doomsday

President Truman established the Federal Civilian Defense Administration in 1951to prepare U.S. citizens for the possibility of an atomic attack. The program was based on a similar project developed during WWII. The very weapon that had ended the war became the greatest fear of the American public once the technology fell into the hands of its communist enemies.

This documentary explores the Civilian Defense Program through the eyes of those who experienced it. The beginning of the Cold War was fought in American classrooms. The 1958 National Defense Education Act provided funds for the expansion of science and math programs that would help the United States win the space race as well as the arms race. Richard Lebenson noted in his interview this educational push while he was in school and indicated that the launch of Sputnik was the catalyst.

“Although FCDA did not limit its educational activities to the public schools, it found in the schools a system to convey information to the public… the public schools were a channel for the mass education of parents as well as children. (Brown 70).”

The 1950s were a time when parents were greatly involved in the education of their children. Public schools served as a key place to inform parents about preparing for an atomic attack but also a place to educate children about the growing threat of Russia. It would be the children of this generation that would go and fight communism on the ground in Vietnam.
Looking back on the 1950s today, history depicts an era defined by the Cold War. President John F. Kennedy morphed the Federal Civilian Defense Administration into the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization in 1958. It released the Family Fallout Shelter Guide, which instructed people how to build their own shelters. There were articles in newspapers and magazines that featured preparing shelters for long stays. Lebenson remembered hearing about bomb shelters but he didn’t know anyone who had actually built on. He said in his testimonial the threat of an atomic bomb did not have a major presence in his life. It was really the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 that he considered the possibility of an atomic attack.

Robert Viscusi, attended elementary school in Sunnyside, Queens, during the 1950s. He hid under desk, knowing that it wouldn’t save him in the event of an atomic attack. He theorized that the roots of the 1960s radical movement were planted during the decade before. The government was lying to the public and the public knew it but didn’t do anything. It would be the people who grew up during this time that would be instilled with a deep skepticism about the national government that still exists today.

The attacks of September 11th reawakened the fears of a domestic attack that had been building up for decades. The Federal Emergency Management Agency replaced the Federal Civilian Defense Administration and released Public Service Announcements. “World Upside Down,” a modern version of “Duck and Cover,” encouraged citizens to make preparations for a disaster. Unlike the Public Service Announcements of the 1950s, it did not make a clear reference to an atomic attack but a more vague threat, which is now looming over the country. Since the threat is not defined, the plan is not defined. Ready.gov, the government website plugged at the end of the PSA, does make similar suggestions for an emergency kit that would be stored in a bomb shelter, but leaves evacuation plans up to the families to decide. The attacks of September 11th revitalized civilian defense in the United States.

The threat of a nuclear attack is more likely today than it was 50 years ago. While the United States is still trying to dictate who can have nuclear technology and who cannot, a growing number of countries are testing bombs, countries that are not allies of the United States. Though the threat is growing, it seems that people aren’t letting it rule their lives. You can only live in fear for but so long before it takes on the everyday banality of life.