--Did
you know that--
The largest
domestic propaganda campaign ever taken place in U.S. history was the civil
defence of Nuclear War, in order to teach citizens a specific kind of nuclear fear
while normalizing the nuclear crisis. That was addressed towards pshychological
defence and control of emotions after the nuclear attack among survivers.
--Because--
Ninety
per cent of all emergency measures after an atomic blast will depend on the
prevention of panic among the survivors inthe first 90 seconds. Like the
A-bomb, panic is fissionable. It can produce a chain reaction more deeply
destructive than any explosive known. If there is an ultimate weapon, it may
well be mass panic—not the A-bomb. (Peterson 1953)
--Therefore--
Designed to
mobilize all Americans for a long Cold War, the civil defense effort involved
town meetings and education programs in every public school; it also sought to
take full advantage of mass media—television, radio, and, particularly film. By
the mid-1950s, the Federal Civil Defense Agency (FCDA) saturated newspapers and
magazines with nuclear war planning advertisements. These radio broadcasts
reached an estimated audience of 175 million Americans per year.
