Civil Defense In North Dakota

increasingly desperate and hostile as they believe their doom approaches. Eventually, the men use a piece of heavy pipe to break down the door of the shelter. Just as the door gives way, a second announcement comes over the radio telling people there is no danger. The unidentified flying objects were merely satellites. Joy turns quickly, once again, to dread as the adults realize how barbaric they became during the ordeal.
The events described above are not found in any history textbooks, nor are they an obscure event left out. The events described are the plot of a Twilight Zone episode that portrayed the deepest fears of both American citizens and politicians. During the Cold War, Americans feared that nuclear war was imminent. How
would the United States and its people defend themselves from, not just a new weapon, but a new kind of warfare that brought an unimaginable degree of destruction. With this new breed of war came a need for a new breed of defense. No amount of traditional military defense could adequately defend the civilian population from a nuclear bomb. The government of the United States decided to employ civil defense, a system in which the civilian population was responsible for its own defense.
Much has been written about the many aspects of civil defense, including its creation, evolution and growth, its intended purposes, and evaluations of its effectiveness.
The story of civil defense is far from complete, however. There are many intriguing stories regarding civil defense. One such story comes out of North Dakota. Despite ts reputation of being a fly-over state with little to see or do, it played a major role in the Cold War. The state was home to one hundred fifty Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. The presence of such a large quantity of nuclear missiles put North Dakota on the Soviet Union's radar, as well as made civil defense in the state higher priority. Only one evaluation of the effectiveness of civil defense in North Dakota has been done, despite its importance to the Cold War as well as contradictory responses within the state. From 1964 to 1970, nuclear missiles were being built in the state with little to no protest, but the construction of the Anti-Ballistic Missile System came with heavy protest in1970. Evaluation of newspaper coverage and civil defense literature of the period will be conducted concerning the installation of nuclear missiles, the installation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile System, and the civil defense programs in the state to determine the effectiveness of civil defense in North Dakota between the years of 1964 to
1970.
The first step in evaluating civil defense in any context is understanding its creation. In his book, The limits of civil defense In the USA, Switzerland, Britain, And The Soviet Union, Lawrence J. Vale outlines the eight phases of the creation and evolution of American civil defense. In order to understand the state of civil defense between 1964 and 1970, only the first four phases need to be examined.
America's first experiment with civil defense occurred during and after World War II.
During this period the Office of civil defense was created with a primary function of examining the civil defense programs of other countries. The Office of civil defense was quickly deemed unnecessary and calls for its closure came as early as 1943. The office survived until June 30, 1945. It was not until 1950 that the United States began to view civil defense as a viable option for protecting its citizens. Under the leadership of President Truman, The Federal civil defense Administration was formed with the purpose of minimizing the effects of a nuclear attack, dealing with the immediate effect of said attack, and aiding in the national recovery steps. Despite presidential urging, civil defense remained almost entirely a state
responsibility.
In her book, Bracing for Armageddon: Why civil defense Never Worked, Dee Garrison places the first phase of American civil defense between the years of 1945 and 1955. Garrison attributes the failure of civil defense in this era to the lack of financial support from the federal government. State civil defense committees accused the federal government of “passing the buck,” and, having a “reckless disregard for civilian safety.”
The first major change to civil defense in the United States came during the Eisenhower Administration according to Vale. With the development of both, more sophisticated nuclear bombs and better delivery systems, the focus of civil defense moved away from shelter and toward evacuation. With this new idea came new challenges. The first problem was the lack of a warning system that would give the general public enough time to execute a successful evacuation. Any attempted evacuation under even the best-estimated conditions was deemed to lead to certain disaster. Further evidence that evacuations would have been useless is found in Garrison's book. High levels of radiation from nuclear tests in Nevada were detected in New York. In addition, it was determined that even without time constraints, an evacuation of any significant population to a safe distance would be impossible. The evacuation approach was abandoned due to the fact that it would need to be supplemented by shelter, making it too expensive. President Eisenhower even refused a request from the National Security Administration for a 40 billion dollar shelter while in office. Despite all of this, the American public was told all was fine.
The third phase of American civil defense came under President Kennedy. Kennedy was the first president to provide significant funding for civil defense, raising the budget from 98 million to 207.6 million. Kennedy viewed civil defense as an insurance policy for the American people, and with this new funding, he wished to identify existing structures that could be used as fallout shelters, as well as create new structures where needed. Along with the increased funding, he initiated a campaign to educate the public on the construction of fallout shelters. President Kennedy had little success, if any, in implementing his insurance policy across the nation. The budget increase lasted only one year, and the distribution of hundreds of thousands of copies of The Family Fallout Shelter lead to an almost unquantifiable increase in the number