Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked PDF
Preview Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked
Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked DEE GARRISON OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS BRACING FOR ARMAGEDDON This page intentionally left blank BRACING F OR ARMAGEDDON Why Civil Defense Never Worked DEE GARRISON 1 2006 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Garrison, Dee. Bracing for Armageddon : why civil defense never worked / Dee Garrison. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13 978-0-19-518319-1 ISBN 0-19-518319-3 1. Civil defense—United States. 2. Nuclear warfare. 3. United States—Military policy. I. Title. UA947.G35 2006 363.35'0973—dc22 2005051559 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Jeanne, and for Travis, David Paul, and Marie This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Over the years I have been writing about nuclear war and reason, many people have generously supported my work. For careful discussions, readings, and cri- tiques of earlier and later versions of sections of this book, I am profoundly grateful to Harriet Alonso, Scott Bennett, Michelle Brattain, John Chambers, Dorothy Sue Cobble, David Fogelsong, Judith Gerson, Phyllis Mack, Art Miller, David Oshinsky, James Reed, Sue Schrepfer, Bonnie Smith, and Deborah White. I also gratefully acknowledge Britt Leggett, Lynn Miller, Carol Petillo and Wayne Cooper, David Swee, Virginia Yans, and my neighbors Barbara Turpin, David Younge, Joy Gianolio, and David Falk for their caring attention to the completion of this work. I am especially grateful to Paul Boyer, Mari Jo Buhle, Lawrence Wittner, and Amy Swerdlow, who believed in the value of this study in its earliest stages. For providing the supportive atmosphere to follow the truth as each of us sees it, I am grateful to my colleagues in the History Department at Rutgers University, who so generously supported me through several months of a seri- ous illness. Suzanne Lebsock and Mary Hartman ensured that I had copies of the manuscript even in the rehabilitation center and printed versions whenever I asked. Kathleen Casey again and again solved computer problems, both large and small, with great skill and love. viii Acknowledgments Generous fi nancial support from a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship grant from its Program on Peace and International Co- operation allowed me to travel to important archives and gave me time to write. Rutgers University also supported my research with several sabbatical semesters and research grants during the past six years. My editor at Oxford University Press, Susan Ferber, has provided insightful, critical, and sympathetic editorial assistance throughout. I am indebted to many archivists and librarians for their kind and enthu- siastic help with research problems and questions. I am especially grateful to Wendy Chmielewski at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, whose knowledge of peace history is as educational as the many peace collections over which she presides. I also give my sincere thanks to the librarians who guided me to key documents in the Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan presidential collections, in the National Archives, and in the university and state libraries I visited. My family members — my sister, Jeanne; my sons, Tray and Marty; and my husband’s youngest daughter, Shannon — were always there to talk, praise my progress, and urge me on. And as always, John Leggett has listened, responded, and sometimes criticized my thoughts, read and reread my prose, and in so many ways made this book possible through his constant encouragement and his enabling me to fi nd the time and energy to complete the research and writ- ing. I have benefi ted enormously from his analytic insights, his impatience with formulaic versions of mainstream wisdom, and his inspiring vision of how we might all learn to live together in a sane and just society. Contents Abbreviations xi Interviews xiii Introduction: Civil Defense and the Nuclear Dilemma: Th e Cold War Tragicomedy 3 Prologue: Th e H-Bomb Changes Everything 19 One: “Alert, Not Alarm”: Th e First Ten Years, 1945 – 1955 31 Two: Th e Battle to Inform the Public, 1952 – 1957 55 Th ree: Holding the Lid On, 1957 – 1960 83 Four: Kennedy’s Civil Defense Gap, 1960 – 1964 105 Five: MAD, NUTS, and Civil Defense, 1963 – 1980 133 Six: Th e Fantasy Dies: Th e Reagan Years 153 Epilogue: From Bush to Bush: Final Gasp to Phoenix Rising 183 Notes 197 Index 233
Description:The list of books you might like
