Nebraska's Role In Nebraska During The Cold War

Who would’ve ever thought that Nebraska could be major target of bombing during the Cold War? While tensions continued to heighten between the Soviet Union and the United States, the state of Nebraska was surprisingly being impacted. Most people outside of the state probably believed that Nebraska was the last place on earth that the Soviets would bomb, but that is not the case. So why was the isolated state of Nebraska oddly a big target on the Soviets map? It’s time to see the reasons why Nebraska was so vital to the United States during the Cold War. During World War II, Nebraskan scientists played key roles in the atomic bomb effort. Several nuclear scientists went to help on the top secret “Manhattan Project” which resulted in the first
Everyone was trying to expose the people they worked with as being communists. Inside the Nebraska government system, there were these exact same problems. Communism was outlawed in Nebraska in 1961 and the search for suspected communists was on. According to Governor Peterson, he had written up a list containing all possible suspects in Nebraska. No lists ever did surface to the public. People tried to get a law passed where all communists had to register to the state. This ended up never passing. “Loyalty Laws” were passed and required employees of the state to sign an oath so they could keep their jobs. This controversial decision really singled out teachers and professors across the state. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln had said that if any communism was found on campus, it would be ridden of. The law remained in effect until it was deemed unconstitutional in
The basement option was the least costly and did provide substantial protection from a bombing attack. The price would range from 150 to 200 dollars for the entire project. Another option was creating a fallout shelter that was placed several feet underground. This would also reduce the amount of radiation that could reach the family. The Nebraska Civil Defense Agency sometimes provided family shelters with cots and sanitation kits. People who constructed their own shelters were advised to store enough food and resources to stay in there for a long period of time. The exact advised time to stay after a nuclear blast was at least two weeks. Many families also stored things to pass the time with, such as the popular game Monopoly. Once the Soviets started testing more nuclear weapons, more and more Nebraskan families began to think it was a good idea to build a shelter to try and keep their family safe. Missiles were known to fall a long ways away from their targets. Another thing many Nebraskans had to consider was how to shelter their livestock. Large cattle shelters were built in order to keep the animals safe from a nuclear