By Julian Feeld, Travis View & Jake Rockatansky
Published June 09, 2022 12:00am
In the early fifties, the United government had to reckon with the escalating nuclear arms race. The cold war meant that ascendant rival superpowers were amassing the tools of apocalypse. Internal committees and think tanks decided that they had to avoid the American people becoming terrified, paralyzed, and panicked about the bomb.The solution? Make people afraid.Citizens should fear the bomb. But they shouldn’t lose their heads. Fear is manageable. Panic is not. The Federal Civil Defense Administration organized messaging and educational campaigns to show how people could defeat potential nuclear destruction with can do American spirit. Officials ho...