civil defense policies in the ‘50s and early ‘60s were based on the significantly flawed notion that most of the nation’s population would survive a catastrophic nuclear attack.Īnd when they did, they would need something to eat.Ī tin of biscuits found open, along with other survival supplies, in a fallout shelter dating from 1962, pictured in 2017.ĭuring the crisis over Berlin in mid-1961, President John F. Community shelters were constructed beneath municipal buildings, and emergency government bunkers were carved into hillsides.Īs ridiculous as it seems now, given what we know of the power of nuclear weaponry, these and other U.S. Families across the country (at least those who could afford it) built fallout shelters in their basements and backyards. In schools, children learned to “ duck and cover,” diving under their desks and staying far away from windows in drills designed to protect them during an atomic strike. With Cold War tensions escalating in the 1950s, the threat of a Soviet nuclear attack cast a terrifying shadow over everyday American life. What were postwar Americans planning to eat in the event of a nuclear attack? Hint: It wasn’t very appetizing.
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