An exercise in utility: Civil defense from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Civil defense of the United States has largely been assessed as a futile or failed effort. Less than two weeks after Hiroshima disappeared under a mushroom cloud, military and civilian experts combed the destroyed city for any lessons that could be learned. The Hiroshima survey led the experts to recommend that the U.S. begin building bomb shelters, though federal officials would allow four years to pass before any significant action was taken. It is a fact that the United States did not embark upon a national shelter construction program at any time during the Cold War. However, the measure by which federal civil defense has been assessed inexorably leads historians back to Hiroshima. Though a shelter program in the United States never materialized, civil defenders did put in place protective measures that would have saved a significant number of Americans in the event of limited nuclear war. A nationwide education effort served to heighten the public's awareness of fallout and the most logical procedures for surviving an attack. Underfunded in every budget request, the Federal Civil Defense Administration and its successor organizations continued to educate the public and help the cities design and implement evacuation plans. More than...