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societies all over the world by the early 1950s were realizing that WWIII had almost come in the Korean War, and could now come at any time

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societies began to prepare for WWIII and to survive WWIII

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what did the general sense that WWIII was coming do to political culture?

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overwhelming national mobilization

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profound insecurity that general war could come at any time

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future wars would be able to touch any community in the United States in the age of the atom bomb

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Americans decide that they are going to have to keep Korea from happening again in Germany

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move forces to Germany in strength

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a commitment of American ground forces in Germany dates from this period and lasts for forty years

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this set up a kind of metaphorical American trip wire which meant any forward move into West Germany would be a move against the United States

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1950-1952: the Cold War comes to Main Street

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before 1950 for most people of most countries, the Cold War was a foreign policy thing, an abstraction that involved far-away countries and geo-political chess games

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now WWIII could come to any community anywhere

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film: Duck and Cover

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made my American civil defense agencies shown to American school children all over the country

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beginning in 1951 and throughout the 50s

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taught how to survive the sudden onset of WWIII

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it was a cost-benefit analysis whether to show this film or not

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what is certain is that with this film, you will certainly scare elementary children throughout the whole nation

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you may potentially save some lives

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the act of "ducking and covering" could be useful in conferring a degree of protection to practitioners outside the radius of the nuclear fireball but still within sufficient range that by standing upright death or serious injury is certain

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this procedure would also protect against non-directly-atomic dangers such as smashing glass and hurled objects from the blast wave

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when people are indoors, running to windows to investigate the source of bright flashes in the sky still remains a common inquisitive human response to experiencing a flash

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similar instructions as presented in the Duck and Cover film are contained in the British 1964 Civil Defence Information Bulletin

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the film shows the apparatus of defense that has to be in every American community

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the shelters

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the sirens

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the civil defense employees

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this gives a sense of national mobilization

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the film also instills into children the idea that all-out war may come at any time, anywhere, even without warning, and that there is very little you can do to be safe other than to cover your head

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this is another kind of insecurity that a whole nation experienced, especially a nation who used to believe it was sheltered by its oceans