That Time the US Government Brainwashed America into DIY Bomb Shelters

Summary

Ridiculous History Podcast Summary

Episode: That Time the US Government Brainwashed America into DIY Bomb Shelters
Date: December 9, 2025
Hosts: Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown
Podcast: Ridiculous History (iHeartPodcasts)

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Overview of the Episode

This episode plunges into the absurd and paranoid chapter of American history when the U.S. government, faced with the growing nuclear threat of the Cold War, launched a massive propaganda effort to encourage ordinary citizens to build their own fallout shelters at home. With characteristic humor and pop-culture savvy, Ben and Noel break down how the government’s campaign combined misinformation, cartoon turtles, and slick advertising to shift the burden of nuclear survival onto average families—often with little scientific basis or genuine public safety.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Nuclear Stage: From WWII to the Cold War

• Post-War Panic: WWII ends with unspeakable destruction, the use of atomic bombs (“Fat Man” and “Little Boy”), and kicks off decades of nuclear dread.
  • Quote (Ben, 05:22): “It feels weird to make your bed, you know what I mean? During the Cuban Missile Crisis, you’re like, should I make the bed or is today the day?”
• Arms Race and Paranoia: The US initially holds exclusive nuclear power until the Soviet Union tests their atomic bomb (“Joe One”) in 1949.
• Personal Reflections: Noel relates pop culture (Radiohead’s “Idioteque”) and the existential dread of the era.
  • Quote (Noel, 05:55): “Does anything really matter? Is it all futile and for nothing? Is it all a big black nothing?”

2. The Propaganda Playbook: DIY Survival and Duck and Cover

How the Government Handled Public Fear

• The FCDA is Born: President Truman creates the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) in 1951 (19:57).
• Propaganda Instead of Policy: Rather than investing public funds in mass defense, the government launches education and ad campaigns, putting pressure on the public to “protect themselves.”
  • Quote (Ben, 22:17): “Put it on the consumer, put it on the public. This is 100% very similar logic.”

Downplaying the Danger

• Misleading Pamphlets: FCDA pamphlets and PSAs often misrepresented or minimized the devastation of nuclear fallout.
• Calming vs. Preparation: Government sought to keep people calm—even if it meant deceiving them about the limits of bunkers and drill effectiveness.
  • Quote (Noel, 23:27): “Is it better to be terrified and worrying about the worst possible outcome or is there something to just a little bit of wish fulfillment?”
• Ritual Placebos: Duck and cover drills and makeshift solutions provided a comforting sense of preparedness but, in reality, would have done little in a real nuclear attack.

3. Pop Culture and Ridiculous Solutions

Bert the Turtle & School Drills

• Duck and Cover Film (28:05–29:45): The hosts play and discuss clips from “Duck and Cover,” featuring Bert the turtle, who models ducking into his shell as a solution to nuclear blasts.
  • Quote (Ben, 28:05): “He’s got like a walking bunker already. Bert would go on…and would say…duking and covering is no different from reacting to a fire or wearing a seatbelt or making sure not to get sunburned.”
  • Quote (Noel, 30:28): “This idea of like a nuclear bomb is tantamount to a monkey dangling a single piece of dynamite.”

The Limits of Propaganda

• Ineffectiveness: Plainly, duck and cover would not protect children in a direct nuclear attack.
  • Quote (Ben, 32:01): “If we separate the propaganda…ducking and covering in the event of a nuclear bomb on a school, it’s not going to save you.”
• Bunkers in Pop Culture: The hosts link these campaigns to post-apocalyptic media franchises like Fallout, highlighting how ‘retrofuturism’ absorbs and satirizes Cold War-era propaganda.
  • Quote (Ben, 40:09): “I love retrofuturism, man. I’m super into it. And they’re also selling this dystopian thing.”

4. The DIY Bunker Boom

Shifting Responsibility

• Government Messaging: Policies like Eisenhower’s National Shelter Policy and public campaigns in the late 1950s and early 1960s urged families to build backyard bunkers, often pitched as part of the American Dream.
  • Quote (Ben, 38:20): “This puts the responsibility of civil defense on the individual, on the family.”
  • Quote (Senator Russell, 41:15): “If we have to start over with another Adam and Eve, I want them to be Americans and not Russians, and I want them on this continent and not in Europe.”
• Commercialization: Companies and retailers capitalized on paranoia by selling step-by-step guides, kits, and prefabricated shelters. The “Family Fallout Shelter” pamphlet sold over 22 million copies.

Social and Cultural Fallout

• Idealized Imagery: Promotional materials leaned heavily into stereotypical 1950s “nuclear family” ideals (mom in an apron, dad with a pipe, kids working together).
  • Quote (Noel, 43:38): “This is like what a great father son activity digging out a fallout shelter would be, right?”
• Efficacy Questioned: Most of these home-built shelters would have been ineffective in a real attack.
  • Quote (Ben, 45:30): “We can then say…that no, the vast majority of these home shelters probably would not have worked in the face of a direct nuclear attack.”

5. Underlying Social Issues: Who Got “Protected”?

• Unequal Impact: Discussion of how government “tests” or preparedness efforts often targeted marginalized communities (26:46).
• Skepticism about Motives: Questions on whether calming the public outweighed actually enacting effective safety.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “You can’t put the badger back in the bag, Ben.”
  Noel, 15:16
  On the inevitability of nuclear proliferation.

• “Let’s make some fun cartoons the kiddies will like with a cartoon turtle telling them everything’s gonna be a-okay.”
  Noel, 24:40
  On the propaganda logic behind “Duck and Cover.”

• “If we have to start over with another Adam and Eve, I want them to be Americans and not Russians, and I want them on this continent and not in Europe.”
  Senator Richard Russell, quoted by Ben, 41:15
  On missile shelter necessity and national pride.

• “It absolutely did lead to ridiculous history.”
  Ben, 47:55
  On how these policies are perfect fodder for the show’s premise.

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Timeline Highlights and Timestamps

• 05:22–10:00: Setting the post-WWII/Cold War paranoia stage, personal anecdotes, nuclear dread in pop culture.
• 14:30–16:32: The Soviets shatter US nuclear monopoly; American response pivots to civilian preparedness.
• 19:57–22:46: FCDA is created, shifting burden from government to citizens via propaganda and pamphlets.
• 24:40–28:54: In-depth dissection of “Duck and Cover” and the use of children’s cartoons in government messaging.
• 38:20–43:26: The National Shelter Policy, commercialization of home bunkers, and the American Dream twist.
• 44:06–46:01: Would these measures actually work? The myth vs. reality of home-built fallout shelters.
• 47:46–48:58: The legacy of this campaign—its failure to prompt mass participation, but lasting cultural impact.

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Recurring Themes and Tone

The hosts maintain their usual irreverent, witty, and accessible tone—poking fun at past paranoia but acknowledging the psychological impact and real anxieties of the age. They stress the absurdity of government messaging that simultaneously calmed and misled, the commodification of existential fear, and how these Cold War rituals became fuel for both fiction and cultural critique.

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Final Thoughts

• Only ~3% of Americans actually built shelters (48:15), showing the disconnect between official messaging and public buy-in.
• “Duck and Cover—it’s the best we got.” (Ben, 48:58)
• The episode ends with gratitude to the audience and a nod to the research team and show contributors.

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A fascinating, funny, and at times sobering look back at the ways America has tried to whistle past the bomb—sometimes through optimism, sometimes through denial, and most memorably through a smiley turtle.

Transcript

[A]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartradio.

Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thanks again as always, so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer, Max Apocalypto Williams.

[B]

Can I be a klaxon? Do they play klaxons when.

[C]

Bit of a doom bringer, that Max Williams?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, gosh. The klaxon is just. It's just like an alarm. Right? Yeah.

Klaxon.

[B]

I had definitely a klaxon in the sound art library.

[A]

We've got some weird end of the year energy. Folks, I am, as always, thrilled to introduce you yet again to the one and only Mr. Noel Brown. Mr. Noel Copenhagen Brown.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Hello, Ben. You know, it's funny that you should say that. I did just return from the land of Christmas, of Santa Claus and Lego. I went to Denmark and ventured, yes, indeed, Lego to see the band Radiohead. And I have had their song Idiotech stuck in my head on a loop. And the first lyrics to that song are, who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker? Women and children first. Anna. Children first. Anna. Children first. And sadly, that song in my head was all I was going to get because they canceled the concert that I went there for because old Tommy York had a little bit of a seasonal swathwote. And the second and third of the run of shows in Denmark were not canceled, but mine was. But it was still a lovely trip, lovely solo adventure.

[A]

Wonderful to hear. They called me Ben Bolan. And, folks, we're glad to hear that Tom is in recovery from his sore throat.

[C]

I don't mean to be dismissive, it was categorized as a severe throat infection, which, if you're a singer, anyone knows how terrifying and debilitating that must be. And I know they didn't take it lightly. Rescheduling the date. Sadly, I'm not going back to copenhagen on the 14th, so I'm just going to flip my ticket. But they'll come to the States. I know they.

[A]

Right, of course. And you'll see them again soon. Take heart. Chins up, folks. Fellow ridiculous historians. We can all go to a Radiohead concert as long as there is not a nuclear war.

[C]

Well, they're actually the perfect band to be listening to in a. In a nuclear fallout situation. Who's in a bunker? We're listening to Idiotech. Kid A in our. In our family bunker with our nuclear family.

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[A]

So the end of the Second World War brought about a lot of good things. There was a lot of chaos, horror, atrocities, literal genocide. And it also launched something we call the Cold War, which we've talked about in our sister shows, stuff they don't want you to know. We're talking about decades of nuclear paranoia. The bombs may drop at any given moment. It feels weird to make your bed, you know what I mean? During the Cuban Missile Crisis, you're like, should I make the bed or is today the day?

[C]

Does anything really matter? Yeah. Is it all futile and for nothing? Is it all a Big black nothing.

[A]

Then is it all a big black nothing, Noel? These questions we ask ourselves in the dark nights of the soul.

[C]

And that's all because of some very sillily named bombs that dropp Fat man and Little Boy that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki reverse respectively. Hiroshima was Little Boy. Nagasaki was Fat Man. And not only did this result in the unconditional surrender of the big bads in that conflict, at least from where we stand, it created this arms race and this just sense of paranoia around a thing that was no longer just conceptual. It was a thing that had happened. And boy, oh boy, was it a thing that happened to some people. And the fallout, pun intended, was utterly, you know, disastrous. And then all of a sudden, everyone starts to insert themselves into that scenario.

[A]

What if it happened here? What if it happened to me? This is a question people around the world ask themselves whenever a disaster of this magnitude occurs. And this launched a very strange cultural moment in the United States in particular. Uncle Sam said, look, we're going to handle things happening outside of the borders, and we'll do our best to take care of the public and keep you safe. But just in case John and Jane Blue Jeans, just in case we don't manage to stop all the bombs and the missiles and the rockets, you should consider investing in your own protection at home.

[C]

And if you can't afford it, then just climb under your bed and then get in the fetal position.

[A]

Right? Right.

[C]

Surely that's all it'll take. Right. Every time I think about duck and cover, Ben, I think about the mummified, like, Medusa fied figures of Pompeii.

[A]

Oh, yeah, totally. Man, I remember having to conduct some of those drills in my younger years. It's very strange to be a kid and be in a nuclear drill where they say, okay, you know, this is what you do if the bombs are going off, get under your tiny wooden.

[C]

Desk, because that'll definitely do the trick. Right. What could go wrong? It is one of those things where it just. You realize how much it was just more of a. An exercise in, like, wishful thinking than it was in actual preparedness.

[A]

Exactly. Yeah. It was almost propagandistic. So how do we get here? As we mentioned, the atomic bombs are deployed at only one period in human warfare. August 6th and 9th, 1945. This was total war. Many civilians were killed. If you were ever in the area in either Nagasaki or Hiroshima, please do take the time to visit the historical sites. It's very worth it.

[C]

And I think we've mentioned this before, some Excellent depictions. And when I say excellent, I just mean really artistically rendered and beautiful and tragic. In pop culture like the Grave of the Fireflies or Barefoot Djinn, some of the animated films that depict the horrors of nuclear war just incredibly starkly.

[A]

History is always closer than it looks in the rearview mirror. When I was last in Hiroshima, spent some time, as you know, Noel, I spent some time exploring the museum, the blast site, the history behind it, and the city itself now is doing very well and has preserved the legacy of these events at the time. Of course, this is still a touchy subject if you're in Japan, but at the time, the Imperial Japanese government was pretty nasty, pretty aggressive. If you want to learn more about things like unit 731, check out stuff they don't want you to know. The Rape of Nanking and so on. What we're saying is, in war there often aren't really pure good guys. Everybody's got some sins and some skeletons in the closet. But because of this, like you were saying, the bombs drop and. And the United States is, for a fairly brief amount of time, it is the only guy in the game with nuclear weapons.

[C]

You know, I just watched the on the Flight Back, the Thunderbolts film.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

I really liked it a lot. It's sad that it didn't really do well in the box office because I would have loved to see them take those characters further. But the New Avengers, and there's a character in it who I believe is the president, played by Elaine from Seinfeld. And she says something like, it's not about being the good guy, it's about being the less worse guy. Or something along those lines.

[A]

Yeah, she is a mover and shaker character who is manipulating the heroes. I don't think she's the president, but she.

[C]

Well, they're talking about impeachment, so she must be like a high ranking government official of some kind. But I definitely didn't clock what her actual job title was.

[A]

It's a great film. Check it out, folks.

[C]

I really enjoyed it. And it did it not to derail, but I thought it did a really cool job of characterizing addiction in a very interesting way. The main character was with Sentry, the sort of manipulated baddie. He's got a background in substance abuse and mental health issues. And I thought they did a really thoughtful, tasteful job of talking about sort of the shadow self and all of those things.

[A]

And the shadow self is something that the United States is considering both as a government and as the public they knew that it was only a matter of time before this powerful, potentially world ending technology spread to other countries, particularly the United States historical frenemy, the Soviet Union. And for the US at this time post World War II, still the only folks in town with the bomb.

For the US because they were almost certain that this technology would spread to other countries, they wanted to flex the power while they had it. Right. While they were the only car with gas in the tank. However, we also learned history would prove that the Soviet intelligence apparatus had already well infiltrated the United States nuclear program, at least to the point where they knew what it was. And they were quickly figuring out how to build their own toys. And this leads us to something weird and sticky, which is whether or not the Cold War ended in the West. People are going to tell you it ended by 1991, right? Or by the fall of the Soviet Union. But if you go to especially Russian officials and Daddy Vladdy, they'll tell you the Cold War never ended. Beat me here, Max. They'll say there is not sweet and it's still go time. Thank you, Max.

[C]

Well, yeah, I mean, as long as the technology exists and no one's used it yet, and we know that people who maybe are not like our best of pals have it, you're always kind of in a perma standoff.

[A]

Yeah. And this is where we see a halcyon age peak nuclear paranoia. It's almost like a moral panic. Diy. Do it yourself Home. Nuclear bunkers became a thing. And so, as our research associate, our pal Dylan mentions here, this was more than just a backdrop for the amazing Fallout franchise and all the other science fiction works about living in bunkers. We want to grab our official fallout cookbooks and start scheming a plan of interior design for our own fallout bunkers to house your perfect nuclear family. We're going to learn more about American propaganda, which was frankly ridiculous at the time. We're going to talk some more about duck and cover drills.

[C]

Cartoon turtles.

[A]

Cartoon turtles. We're also going to explore a little bit of history along the way. So as we said, everybody knew it was only a matter of time before there were other nuclear powers on the planet. On August 29, 1949, Kazakhstan ends the nuclear monopoly they test. The Soviet Union goes there to test their own atomic bomb, affectionately nicknamed Joe One.

[C]

I'd never heard that one before, Ben. I know it was called Joe One. Yeah. And we've got Alex Wellerston writing for History of Science and Nuclear Weapons, who is a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology. During this period, the United States is suddenly having to really reckon with the fact that it is not the only nuclear power out there anymore. Now, instead of just seeing the bomb as this asset that we could use or not use, it suddenly brought to bear that this is something that could be used against us. You can't put the badger back in the bag, Ben. And it's like one of those things where once it's out there, it's only a matter of time before someone else figures out how to Harness Fire, right?

[A]

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Because everybody wants to be Prometheus.

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[A]

This is something that the US Government is not able to suppress. The public knows that now the Red Bear, half a world away, has its own nuclear capabilities. And so how do we, as the US Government, address this? How do we get the public prepared for these terrifying possibilities? Well, it starts on January 12, 1951. Then US President Truman creates something called the Ficta, or Federal Civil Defense Administration.

[C]

Right. This was a direct response to the Soviet's nuclear test of Joe 1. An acknowledgement of this new reality, this idea of a potential nuclear Armageddon that was very, very real and very, very palpable, presenting this nightmare scenario that the federal government was just frankly, completely unprepared for, underfunded, and just didn't really, you know, have the infrastructure in place to do anything about this. Because, you know, sadly, that kind of. I don't know what you might call it arrogance that the US has historically presented that, you know, that facade was really slipping. Yeah.

[A]

Because it was confronted by facts. And here's one of the ridiculous things that the FCDA does. They could have, if they had enough money, they could have allocated federal funding to civil defense projects. But instead of doing that, our friends at Civil defense started putting out propaganda. And their concept was, look, if we can motivate members of the public to help do some of this work, that we're going to save money and we'll have a better defended nation. So if we can, if we can get in people's heads enough to motivate citizens at the state, local, or even private level to pay for their own bunkers, pay for their own defensive measures, then boom, we're. We're starting off on second base.

[C]

Gosh, Ben, it reminds me a lot of, like, how the initial push for recycling was its own propaganda to defer or deflect some of the responsibility of pollution onto the consumer and say, actually, you should do something about this. This is on you.

[A]

Exactly, yeah. Put it on the consumer, put it on the public. This is 100% very similar logic. So how do we know this is propaganda? Well, we know it because if you look at the old civil defense educational pamphlets that they spread across the land, you'll see that they are very misleading or they downplay the severity of atomic radiation and nuclear fall.

Know if this was because they actually didn't know what happens when, when a nuclear blast occurs. Like, maybe they didn't know how the radiation, how long the radiation would stick around, how far the fallout could spread. Or maybe, and this is probably more likely, they did know, but they were trying to keep everybody calm, which is just the most unhelpful thing if you're ever in an emergency situation. I get it. I know we have to say this kind of stuff when people are scared, but I don't think anybody hears a recorded voice saying, calmly proceed to the nearest exit and then, in fact, proceeds calm.

[C]

That's true. There is something to be said of, like, you know, lowering the temperature on this type of tension and this type of paranoia. Like, when I was getting off the plane in Atlanta yesterday, there was a family that was clearly very, very, very stressed about making their connecting flight. And I wasn't lying to them, but I told them, they said they had an hour. And I said, oh, you'll be fine. You can make it in an hour. And I was, you know, it's possible they missed their flight, but honestly, is. Is it. Is, is it Better to like be terrified and worrying about the worst possible outcome or is there something to just a little bit of wish fulfillment. Yeah.

[A]

Also, it's something you can't control.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

So worrying about the things you cannot control is. It's kind of self defeating, but it's something a lot of people do. And so the United States, which does have a good understanding of large scale psychology, they say we're going to reassure the public in some way. Right. And we're actually, and I'll use this word, we're actually going to trick them into thinking simple stuff like a DIY fallout bunker and duck and cover drills are gonna keep you safe in World War Three.

[C]

Yeah. Let's make some fun cartoons the kiddies will like with a cartoon turtle telling them everything's gonna be a. The FCDA did focus heavily on.

Initiatives that made it to the classroom, where they were able to sort of shape a new generation, you know, into thinking about this stuff in a way that was perhaps helpful to the overall narrative from their side. From the perspective of the government.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. It's the logic that Wu Tang would use later. You get the children. Right. And then they get the adults. Toy companies have done this forever too.

[C]

Absolutely.

[A]

So they wanted. Wanted to talk to kids, not about necessarily terrifying stuff. They didn't want it to be all gloom and doom, but they wanted to say, hey, fellow kids, you know what's really cool? Gardening at home and canning and make your dad pay for a bunker. I'm Earth.

[C]

I was on board with canning and gardening. How do we all of a sudden get to bunker?

[A]

Right, right. And it would be the whole family, to be fair, not just the dad. That's true. So kids would practice these air raid drills primarily in cities that, that the US thought were likely targets for the Soviet Union.

[C]

Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, big metro areas, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Philadelphia, etc.

[B]

And to jump in here real quick, kind of like a side tangent, but back in the day, we had an episode about how they tested chemical warfare on St. Louis because it was the most Soviet Union looking city. Yeah, I think I've told you guys this one, at least off air, but I have a good friend, his name is Vic, who grew up in St. Louis. And I told him that. And like the chemical war, the chemical testing, which it wasn't hazardous, I don't think, but it was like that. That creeped him out. But he's also like, the part that bothered him was like, I don't like the fact that they think St. Louis is the most Soviet Union looking city in this country.

[A]

Right. How much brutalist architecture does a city possess?

[C]

They got that arch. It's pretty brutal. Yeah.

[A]

And we also explore that case at length in our book, Stuff they don't want you to know. As you said, Max, as far as we can tell, the stuff that they were dispersing, it was targeting poorer neighborhoods. Right. And it was also.

According to the people who conducted the test, it did not contain dangerous chemicals.

[C]

Right. And when we say poorer neighborhoods, we're also referring largely to black and brown people being targeted.

[A]

100%, Noel. Yeah. People who probably wouldn't have the legal means to fight back. So this sort of stuff is old as dirt. Right. These tactics used against the public for greater good. We also have to point out that it's a real trip to watch these old nuclear war PSAs and instructions for kids. Because Bert the turtle is always in a great mood, despite the fact that in his universe, the end of the world is occurring.

[C]

It is, it is. It is on the horizon for sure. But he has a real can do attitude. And he is fully convinced that ducking and covering, because he's a turtle, by the way, that's what he does. He pulls his little head and his legs inside of his shell. Makes sense. Was gonna be enough to protect our meat bodies from explosive radiation.

[A]

Yeah. And he also spent a lot of time trying to normalize the concept of ducking and covering. You've gotta see this absolute banger, duck and cover. It comes about because in 1951, Uncle Sam hires an ad agency out of New York called Archer Productions. They say, okay, make this film for kids and tell them how to, you know, feel like they're protecting themselves from atomic war. So they come up with this guy Bert, like you said, Noel. I love that he's a turtle. So he's got like a walking bunker already. And he said Bert would go on in this and he would say, look, kids, ducking and covering is no different from reacting to a fire or wearing a seatbelt or making sure not to get sunburned.

[C]

Let's hear a little clip from the. From the. This video that we're talking about.

[D]

There was a turtle by the name of Burt.

[A]

He's got a bow tie smelling of flower.

[C]

Flowers. Also wearing a military helmet.

[B]

Oh, no.

[C]

The monkey's dangling a piece of dynamite. I love that.

What's that sound effect, that sucking sound?

I love. This idea of like a nuclear bomb is tantamount to a monkey dangling a single piece of dynamite.

[D]

Be sure and Remember what Bert the.

[C]

Turtle just did, friends?

[D]

Because every one of us must remember to do the same thing.

[A]

That's what this film is all about. Duck and Cover.

[D]

This is an official civil defense film produced in cooperation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration and in consultation with the Safety Commission of the National Education Association.

[A]

Produced by Archer Productions. And what do we always say about seemingly innocuous organization? Names? Sketchy. That's a real sketchbook page. But the point there is true. You can watch it. It's exactly what we're describing. The simian creature dangling a stick of dynamite blows himself up and blows the tree up that he's hanging from. But our hero Bert is safe because he, what, ducked and covered, right?

[C]

That's right. And if you're watching the new IT series, welcome to Derry. No spoilers, but when Pennywise the Clown finally appears, the first says to the kids is Duck and Cover, kiddos.

[A]

Oh, wow. Is it the same? Is it the Skarsgard?

[C]

It is. Yeah. He's back. And he does. It's got its issues, but I'm enjoying it. But it is the same exact era that we're describing here.

[A]

I like what I've seen, but I haven't seen the latest episodes. I'm a big fan of Stephen King and I'm a big fan of almost every part of the novel. It.

[C]

Yeah. You don't like the. You don't like the part where the.

[A]

I don't like that part.

[C]

You don't like that part? You don't like that one part? Nah, just look up that one part and online. Yeah. You don't have to describe it, but.

[A]

We'Ll keep it PG 13.

[C]

Cocaine's a hell of a drug.

[A]

That is honestly what Stephen King probably said several times. Oh, yeah. So if we go back to this, this is already kind of Stephen King. Ish and creepy. Right. The.

[C]

He absolutely took these. He would have grown up in this era with this type of paranoia and fear and this idea of the godlike power of destruction. Obviously, the Stand is about something similar to this, and it's very much on the man's mind, no question about it.

[A]

Yeah. But look at it from a practical perspective. If we separate the propaganda, just to be clear, if we haven't been clear enough, ducking and covering in the event of a nuclear bomb on a school, it's not going to save you.

[C]

Ain't going to do it.

[A]

Not going to happen.

[C]

Nope.

[D]

So.

[C]

But it's good to have, you know, things that you think will, will, will help again. It's all it was propagandistic and that none of this was going to actually do any good. But it kind of had a calming effect, potentially.

[A]

Sure, yeah. Who doesn't love a little ritual, a little procedural placebo? That's what this becomes. And W. Gail Stearns, who is the director of the Civil Defense Division of Education and Training, came to educators and said, look, you need to not just settle for Bert the Turtle, our breakout star. You need to make sure that we're incorporating civil defense in every daily function. It's way more than just something a federal agency does. You, my fellow Americans, need to make this your way of life. And that's where the whole bunker industry comes in, which is cool.

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Yeah.

[C]

And as you mentioned earlier, Ben, a lot of this had to do with how unprepared we as a country and as a government actually were. So this idea of rather than maybe putting infrastructure in place, building these things for you, having some sort of national preparedness plan, it was almost like shifting the responsibility to the individuals.

[A]

Exactly. 100%. Right. And I. I don't know, I'm sure that I've mentioned this to you some point over the years, but I used to live in a thing that was a creepy stone castle essentially off a street here called Moreland.

[C]

Nice. I know. Moreland.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like the house on Neibolt Street?

[A]

Kind of. It was built by very short man back in the 20s or 30s and it was not really up to modern code. But one interesting thing this guy did, who's very paranoid, he built a bomb shelter in his castle. It was a room in the basement, obviously no windows. It was fortified, and it was creepy. We turned it into a dark room for photography.

[C]

Bomb shelter, fallout shelter, bunker. All of these things can be synonymous, right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And so. So let's fast forward. It's 1958. President Eisenhower has issued something called the National Shelter Policy. And this is a public info campaign trying to motivate citizens to build their own home defenses, primarily do it yourself bunkers. So again, like you were saying, Noel, this puts the responsibility of civil defense on the individual, on the family. And there were. There were equally propagandistic things that people said. Like the civil defense director at the time, Leo A ho hoe g h. He said every home should be a fortress.

[C]

Right. And almost like factoring it in or piggybacking this into this idea of the American dream, you know, like, making it part of, like. That's why Fallout, the series and the video games is so interesting, because it does such a good job of, like, the way they advertise these vault tec vaults. It's in that same kind of like, you know, the modern household, the modern family, all of the amenities and technologies that, you know, kind of were part and parcel for what it meant to be a great American living in the. The age of, you know, technology in the future.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And to jump in real quick as you know, I'm a big Fallout fan. Like. Like, all three of us. It's like one of my favorite things because it is kind of an alternate universe where. Where basically 50s culture just continues. It doesn't change, doesn't progress 60s stuff like that. And so, yeah, it's just like watching all this stuff. I've always found this as one of my favorite areas of studying, and I think Fallout just captures it so well, 100%.

[A]

I love retrofuturism, man. I'm super into it. And they're also selling this dystopian thing. The argument is from officials is not only is it your duty as an American citizen to be prepared, it is also your privilege, and it should be your aspiration. We're not just gonna make you build a bomb shelter. We want you to be happy that you're doing it right. We want you to feel good about it.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

This idyllic sort of quality of like. No, no. This is just. It's the same as, like, you know, having the latest appliances in your kitchen. You also need a really dope. Bombshell.

[A]

Yeah, right. Keep up with the Joneses. And this is where we see things like the senator from Georgia at the time, or a senator from Georgia at the time, Richard Russell.

[C]

He's the damn guy, right?

[A]

He's the one.

[C]

The Richard B. Russell Dam. Isn't that a thing?

[A]

Oh, I think you're correct, man. That's a great reference. I didn't put that together, but yes, you're absolutely right. And this guy, Senator Russell would say, look, these shelters that, again, you people have to build, they are absolutely mission critical for the US to maintain global dominance as a superpower. He said, quote, if we have to start over with another Adam and Eve, I want them to be Americans and not Russians, and I want them on this continent and not in Europe.

[C]

However, the problem is, or the flip side of that is the father of the hydrogen bomb, Dr. Edward Teller, said that without actual government subsidies, subsidized preparedness, and civil defense infrastructure put in place, like some of these, you know, more nationalized bomb shelters, the United States would, quote, cease to exist. So this was really kind of kicking the can down the road because of a lack of preparedness, because we just were a little too high on our own supply and thought nobody else can. Can be as big of a big shot as we are.

[A]

Right, exactly. And historically, that doesn't work out well for empires. The tensions continue to rise throughout the Cold War. Fast forward, it's July 25, 1961. We've got a different president now. His name is JFK, and he has to go to the public and say, look, yes, tensions are escalating. We want peace, but these guys are crazy. And as a result, oh, friends and neighbors, it is a great time to be in the home shelter business. They're selling like hotcakes. They're selling like fruitcakes.

[C]

Yeah, that's where the whole vault TEC narrative comes from. The fallout universe. So this really starts to become a boom time for the Family Fallout Shelter, which was actually the name of a book that sold 22 million copies. 1959, the Family Fallout Shelter was really a pamphlet, I guess you could call it. It was released by the Office of Civil Defense Mobilization, and in it, they detailed a step by step guide for explaining to families how to build their own fallout shelters as an extension of their home garages or basements, or even digging in the backyard, 100%.

[A]

And these instructions are well intentioned, but they did not age well. It's very much leaning on those nuclear family gender roles that we mentioned.

[C]

Right. Mom Wearing an apron, dad smoking a pipe, you know, all of that stuff. This is like what a great father son activity digging out a fallout shelter would be, right?

[A]

Exactly. And we can back this up with a statement from historian Sarah A. Lichtman who said, quote, the desire to protect the imperiled home, long a bulwark of American frontierism and self defense, now translated to staving off the physical and psychological devastations of nuclear attacks.

[C]

Well then the question becomes would these, you know, obviously, thankfully, knock on wood, we didn't have to put this to the test, but would these as described in the family, fault out shelter structures or extensions of the home? Would they have worked? Would they have been a little bit of a step beyond duck and cover? One might hope.

[A]

Yeah, that's the million kiloton question, isn't it Noel? Because now we see again this ritual of doing something to feel that you are protecting your family, to feel that you are more empowered. But the materials that they would use for construction had to be readily available, right? So you had to go. You're literally being told to go to a hardware store and make a little room that's a bit more fortified than the other rooms in your house.

[C]

And I think we all thought about this. This is also the era of the like prefab homes that Sears and Roebuck advertised in their catalogs. Sears and Roe catalogs, obviously a big propagandistic force in and of itself creating this image of the, the, you know, the modern American family. So think about it like that. These are the kinds of ad campaigns we'd be seeing whether on the local level or more national level. A fire sale, low price on nuclear fallout shelters for a family of five. Don't miss this great opportunity to guarantee your future.

[A]

Exactly, yeah. And we're talking about stuff like concrete blocks, ready mix border, wooden posts, board sheeting, pounds of nails, you know, again, stuff you could get at your local ace hardware store essentially. And we can then say, and our buddy research associate Dylan agrees with us, we can then say that no, the vast majority of these home shelters probably would not have worked in the face of a direct nuclear attack.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I don't think so. Not to mention like, I mean, if it wasn't a direct hit though, Ben.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And you were able to wait out the like literal fallout and all of the nuclear materials and you know, the, the stuff that would, you know, permeate the air, you know, surrounding the impact zone of a nuclear blast, what would have been left?

[A]

Exactly, yeah. I mean that's the thing Too.

[C]

Like when you emerge. Right. And that's also the stuff of post apocalyptic fiction as well. What happens after.

[A]

Right. And you get to staying good, usually. Yeah. You get to that question of whether or not you want to continue living in the world that is left in the smoking ruins of human civilization. Again, folks, check out our episode on stuff they don't want you to know. Can you survive a nuclear attack? Attack. That was a very sobering one for us. The statistics are frightening. It's also kind of frightening too. I'm not sure what to make of this, because it's frightening to imagine that the US government knew it was misleading people and continued to do so. They weren't asking people to lobby for the US to directly strike the Soviet Union.

[C]

No. And again, back to the hubris of it all, I guess, given, you know. Yeah, that was not great. Knowing that the technology existed, perhaps it would have been smart to have made some bigger picture long game plans for what might happen if this were to end up in the hands of quote, unquote, the enemy. But given the circumstances and all of that hubris, was this about the best they could do given the timeline?

[A]

I think so, because they were at a crisis moment and they were trying to thread the needle as best they.

[C]

Could, but it absolutely prevented an all out panic.

[A]

Right. But it absolutely did lead to ridiculous history. And this wasn't, by the way, this wasn't a super successful initiative. By around 1960, the real height of the Cold War as the west understands it, something like maybe 3% of the American population had actually built a shelter.

[C]

Pretty rare to hear about. Like, oh, it's kind of an oddity if you end up renting a home or purchasing a home and, oh, there's a fallout shelter. Like, it's. It's definitely not something that there are an absolute heap of.

[A]

Yeah, you know what I mean? What they were aiming for, to be kind of like a normalized structure in any given household. Kind of the way that so many homes in Finland have saunas. It's normalized in like an apartment complex. It's weird for there not to be a sauna, apparently, but this is where we have to leave it. In the immortal words of our pal Bert the Turtle, duck and cover, it's.

[C]

The best we got.

[A]

It's the best we got. We have the best audience in the history of podcasting. That's you. Specifically you. Thank you so much for tuning in, folks. And big thanks to Our super producer, Mr. Max Williams, and huge thanks to.

[C]

Our research associate for this episode. Dylan, Wade Clark, Excellent job on this brief. Geez. Christopher Oziotes and Eve Jeffcoats here in spirit.

[A]

Oh totally, yeah. Dr. Rachel Big Spinach Lance AJ Bahamas Jacobs and famously the guy who wouldn't let other people into his fallout shelter, Jonathan Strickland.

[C]

Ah man, I'm sure he would if we asked nicely.

[A]

Let's text him.

[C]

Okay, let's do it. We'll see you next time, folks.

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