(1951) NYC's FIRST ATOMIC AIR RAID DRILL A UNBELIEVABLE PIECE OF ATOMIC HISTORY!

A RARE LOOK AT NYC DURING ONE OF ITS "MANDATORY"ATOMIC AIR RAID DRILLS, FILMED WITH SOUND IN TIMES SQUARE THE SOUND OF SIRENS ECHOING THROUGH NYC's STREETS AS NEW YORKERS HURRY TO SHELTERS IS A VERY RARE SIGHT AND ONE PROBABLY NOT SEEN VERY OFTEN. THE FIRST VIDEO IS A NEWS REEL OF THE NYC CIVIL DEFENSE EXERCISE 

When nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, civilians had their first glimpse of the new reality: a world where one massive bomb could decimate an entire city. But it was not until the power balance shifted and another country—the Soviet Union—tested its first nuclear bomb on August 29, 1949 that the new world order became truly frightening to many Americans. The US government needed to find ways to keep civilians safe in the event of a nuclear attack and make citizens feel comfortable with the idea of the bomb and nuclear energy. Civil defense as practiced in the US after World War II was a domestic security policy that combined propaganda with theories about survival following a nuclear attack. The US never successfully implemented a civil defense plan, but New York City figures prominently in Civil Defense history.