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Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked
In Bracing for Armageddon , Dee Garrison pulls back the curtain on the U.S. government's civil defense plans from World War II through the end of the Cold War. Based on government documents, peace organizations, personal papers, scientific reports, oral histories, newspapers, and popular media, her book chronicles the operations of the various federal and state civil defense programs from 1945 to contemporary issues of homeland security, as well as the origins and development of the massive public protest against civil defense from 1955 through the 1980s. At a time of increasing preoccupation over national security issues, Bracing for Armageddon sheds light on the growing distrust between the U.S. government and its subjects in postwar America.
- GenresHistory
242 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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March 10, 2009
Garrison represents one of only a few authors to write a comprehensive analysis detailing the evolution government-generated nuclear-specific communication to the American public throughout the Cold War period. He analyzes the American governmental approach to develop defenses within the general public against nuclear destruction as well as the changes in those nuclear communication efforts over the course of the Cold War. He also explains how those communication strategies were applied to the civil defense ideology and action developed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The author begins by dedicating a chapter to understanding the destructive force released by an atomic weapon. He discusses the specific size and destructive force of a hydrogen bomb and how its detonation by the U.S. in 1952 and the Soviet Union in 1953 completely altered perceptions of nuclear war. If the hydrogen bomb, “Mike,” detonated in the Eniwetok atoll 3,000 miles west of Hawaii, had been dropped on New York City it would have completely obliterated all five boroughs.
Following this brief introduction the author precedes to describe communication initiatives in the form of a chronology that illustrates the evolution of civil defense, beginning with Truman Administration and carrying through to the Reagan Administration. Over a 50-year period civil defense would become one of the most reorganized elements in the history of the federal government, susceptible to change due to the philosophical differences of each administration. This constant flux resulted in agency modified 13 times; beginning with the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) within DOD, to FEMA (originally an independent, cabinet-level agency), to the current Department of Homeland Security – where “civil defense” responsibilities are scattered throughout the department and are even owned by agencies outside the department. Garrison describes, in detail, national-level efforts to engage the public as well as the anti-civil defense protest that escalated in response. He captures the history of nuclear-specific public communication through his extensive analysis of government publications and reports, presidential directives, congressional discourse, academic writing, and media coverage and commentary.
The author begins by dedicating a chapter to understanding the destructive force released by an atomic weapon. He discusses the specific size and destructive force of a hydrogen bomb and how its detonation by the U.S. in 1952 and the Soviet Union in 1953 completely altered perceptions of nuclear war. If the hydrogen bomb, “Mike,” detonated in the Eniwetok atoll 3,000 miles west of Hawaii, had been dropped on New York City it would have completely obliterated all five boroughs.
Following this brief introduction the author precedes to describe communication initiatives in the form of a chronology that illustrates the evolution of civil defense, beginning with Truman Administration and carrying through to the Reagan Administration. Over a 50-year period civil defense would become one of the most reorganized elements in the history of the federal government, susceptible to change due to the philosophical differences of each administration. This constant flux resulted in agency modified 13 times; beginning with the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) within DOD, to FEMA (originally an independent, cabinet-level agency), to the current Department of Homeland Security – where “civil defense” responsibilities are scattered throughout the department and are even owned by agencies outside the department. Garrison describes, in detail, national-level efforts to engage the public as well as the anti-civil defense protest that escalated in response. He captures the history of nuclear-specific public communication through his extensive analysis of government publications and reports, presidential directives, congressional discourse, academic writing, and media coverage and commentary.
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