On July 16, 1945, the United States successfully tested the world’s first atomic bomb, or A-bomb, in Alamogordo, New Mexico. In August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing thousands of people and ending the war with Japan. The use of the bomb dramatically increased the consequences of armed conflict between countries around the world. After the war alliances broke down and the Soviet Union and the United States began to compete with each other for power and influence. One on the areas that they competed was the development of their nuclear strength.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman’s National Security Council increased U.S. military spending to $50 billion a year, much of which was spent on developing better nuclear weapons and more sophisticated delivery systems. However, the American monopoly on nuclear weapons ended in 1949 when the Soviets perfected their nuclear technology and developed a nuclear weapon of their own. From that year on, both sides began to test more and more powerful nuclear weapons. In 1952, the United States successfully tested an even more powerful nuclear device, the hydrogen bomb, and the Soviet Union followed suit in 1953. Both sides now competed in a race to build enough nuclear weapons to defeat the other in the event of war. Soon each superpower was armed with enough destructive power to destroy an entire continent, and, later, the world.
Fear and Anxiety In America
While the 1950s were a time of prosperity in America, they were also a time of unprecedented anxiety. In Russia, hydrogen bomb testing contributed to a nerve-wracking arms and space race. Nationally, an Alert America campaign sought to reassure people that simple civil defense procedures would protect them. Booklets and films offered suggestions on how to survive an atomic attack. The Federal Civil Defense Administration worked to familiarize people with images of the catastrophic effects of the atomic bomb in the hope that this would prevent panic. Millions of comic books were distributed to school children featuring a cartoon turtle called Bert that urged them to "duck and cover" in the event of an atomic strike. Spotters were assigned to watch the skies for anything that looked suspicious or out of the ordinary.
Survival stores around the nation sold air blowers, filters, flashlights, fallout protection suits, first aid kits and water. General Foods and General Mills sold dry-packaged meals as underground rations. Civil defense films assured the public that simple precautions like walled-off basement corners stocked with two weeks rations and a radio tuned to the new emergency network, would help them survive a nuclear attack. Hollywood contributed to the mood and produced nuclear war doomsday films like "On The Beach," "The Last Man On Earth," "The Day the World Ended," "Atomic Kid," and "Dr. Strangelove."
Bomb Shelters
As the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union escalated, the fear of a nuclear war drove many Americans to dig or contract for bomb shelters. For some, eventual attack seemed inevitable and conversations were held about keeping the neighbors out of shelters to conserve food and water supplies. Bomb shelters costing from $100 to as much as $5,000 for an underground suite with phone and toilet. Some newspapers carried radiation readings beside daily weather reports and the magazine Popular Mechanics published a fallout shelter blueprint for the do-it-yourselfer. While Congress debated the merits of evacuating large cities versus massive community shelters, homeowners improvised shelters from septic tanks, concrete tubing, steel sheds and discarded lumber. Major airlines, Detroit automakers, IBM, the phone company and Wall Street planned employee shelters.