(1969) THE LAST OF THE CIVIL DEFENSE FILMS "IN TIME OF EMERGENCY" AND MASS MAILED HANBOOK

In Time of Emergency

Office of Civil Defense

1969

One way to view American civil defense is as a series of informational campaigns, each lasting a few years and each having the same overall goal of preparedness.  The 1950's, for example, saw Alert America in the early part of the decade and Operation Alert in the latter years.  Both were nationwide efforts to enlist volunteers and were supported by films, posters, air raid drills, and traveling displays.  This pattern would continue into the 1970's with the Your Chance to Live program, which used everyday disasters to remind viewers of the importance of emergency planning.  Nestled in between was the In Time of Emergency campaign, principally embodied through lengthy pamphlets of the same name released in March of 1968.  From the outset, government officials sought to connect civil defense planning with preparation for natural disasters.  While 95% of the publication is devoted to fallout protection and planning for an atomic attack, the final pages explain how the same procedures will help in case of blizzard, conventional fire, earthquake, and hurricanes.  To supplement the pamphlet, an LP was released which highlighted the atomic aspect but neglected the conventional disasters.  Similarly, a film was created in 1969 which featured a prologue by the Office of Civil Defense director John E. Davis who briefly mentions natural disasters, though the rest of film focuses on home fallout protection and the responsibilities of living in the nuclear age.

CHECK OUT PRESIDENT NIXON ON THE WALL

                              

John Davis opens the film by stating its true purpose.  "Many thousands of disasters hit the United States each year, that's more than fifty disasters per day!  But even the greatest natural disaster we could imagine would be dwarfed in loss of life and property in the event of a nuclear attack.  Our purpose in civil defense is to protect you, so you can protect yourself in time of emergency."  The protection Davis speaks of is symbolized by the fallout shelter signs dotting America cities.  The National Fallout Shelter Program began with great fanfare during the Kennedy administration, though by the late 1960's its publicity had declined significantly.  Still, shelter spaces which had been surveyed and deemed appropriately secure, received federally funded supplies in 1969 and beyond.  Fallout protection was being encouraged in new buildings as well.  This is important, the narrator explains, because while only 5% of the United States would likely fall victim to the blast and heat of a bomb, the entire landmass could be covered with fallout.  Is fallout protection a priority for most people?  "There are of course those that give up, that feel there is no hope for surviving a nuclear attack, that speak of it as an absolute end.  As the Cuban crisis showed us, however, this kind of talk is . . . just talk.  Most people will seek some sort of protection."  

"Well, this protection is here now."  Ample shelter space developed across the nation in apartment buildings, businesses, office spaces, and shopping centers, however, civil defense planners were ever weary of a shelter shortage in the suburbs, where much of the population retired each night. The solution to this problem began with a homeowners' survey.  Delivered in the mail, the survey provided a questionnaire, asking Americans to consider home construction details believed to benefit the occupants in time of nuclear emergency.  If the homes themselves were found to offer suitable fallout protection, then further reading was recommended to instruct families on how to turn sturdy corners of their basements into personal shelter spaces.  If caught unprepared, the average family could improvise a shelter out of bookshelves, heavy furniture and even dirt from the garden if necessary.  While these improvised measures of home protection would reduce the danger of fallout, In Time of Emergency emphasizes they should only be utilized as last moment solutions.  As the film explains, an average family's best chance for survival lay in finding the nearest public shelter, marked and stocked by the government across the country.  Supplied with vital water, medical, and food supplies, the shelters were also to have trained management staffs. "Even so, shelter life would be spartan.  None of the comforts of home!"

COURTESY OF ATOMIC HOME CINEMA

 THE BOOKLET AND FILM WAS ONE OR THE LAST GASP FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL DEFENSE ONLY TO BE FOLLOWED BY CARTOON LIKE SHORT FILMS OR MARIONETTES ACTING OUT DISASTERS AND THE HIDDEN MESSAGE NUCLEAR WAR. THE NEXT BATTER UP FOR THE JOB OF CIVIL DEFENSE CAME WITH "FEMA" FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, GONE WAS THE CD INSIGNIA  AND IN WAS A FEDERAL EAGLE TYPE INSIGNIA WITH A TINY CD TRIANGLE HIDDEN WITHIN THIS LOGO THIS BLOG WILL NOT GO IN TO THIS PERIOD OF NATIONAL CIVIL DEFENSE SINCE IT WAS A PAPER PUBLISHING AFFAIR NOT LOOKING FOR CIVILIANS TO JOIN BUT USING AGENCIES LIKE LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENTS AND OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES AND OFFERED CIVILIAN INVOLVEMENT THROUGH  HOME STUDY COURSES THAT BASICALLY NEVER GOT MORE INVOLVED THAN THAT ,GONE WERE THE NATIONAL SHELTER PLAN AND EMERGENCY SUPPLIES STOCKED AROUND THE COUNTRY THE SHELTER SYSTEM WAS BASICALLY ABANDONED IN PLACE AND LEFT TO ROT. FEMA HAD ITS SHINING MOMENT AND SHOWED THE NATION AND WORLD HOW PREPARED OUR GOVERNMENT WAS  AND  WHAT MODERN CIVIL DEFENSE LOOKED LIKE AND WHAT A NATIONAL SIZE EMERGENCY WOULD LOOK AND BE HANDLED LIKE DURING "HURRICANE KATRINA" PERHAPS THE WORST MOMENT IN CIVIL DEFENSE  AND PREPAREDNESS AND STILL THE AGENCY IS LOST TAKING ON THE ROLE OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPARING FOR LARGE CIVILIAN DISTURBANCES HOW TO QUELL THEM AND DETAIN AMERICANS.  IN THE YEAR "2014" CIVIL DEFENSE IS NON EXISTENT IN A EMERGENCY PEOPLE ARE TOLD TO SHELTER AT HOME NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS, ALTHOUGH A VERY BRIEF PREPAREDNESS PUSH IS RESURFACING IN NYC , SINCE WE HAD NO MORE AIR DEFENSE CENTERS IN 2001 4 JET AIRCRAFT WERFE HIJACKED TWO CRASHED INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTERS ONE HIT THE PENTAGON ONE WAS CRASHED IN A FIELD IN SHANKSVILLE PA INROUTE TO POSSIBLY THE WHITE HOUSE,THIS WAS THE DEADLIEST EVENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY CONCERNING ATTACKS WITHIN OUR BORDERS AND BOY DID THEY CATCH US UNAWARE! OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE BELIEVES THAT TERRORISTS ARE PLANNING TO SMUGGLE A NUCLEAR WEAPON AND DETONATE IT WITHIN A LARGE CITY , NUCLEAR SEARCH TEAMS ARE A CURRENT SITE IN MANHATTAN NYC, EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE REAGAN HAS SAID " THEIR NIGHTMARE IS WHEN  OUR NATIONS ENEMIES DETONATE A NUCLEAR WEAPON WITHIN A AMERICAN CITY  AND THIS KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT BECAUSE ITS NOT IF THEY DO IT ,ITS WHEN WILL THEY DO IT. " THIS  NOT WORD FOR WORD QUOTE CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO ONE OF MANY OF PRESIDENTS BUT I BELIEVE PRESIDENT WILLIAM CLINTON HAD SAID THIS AND SO HAS EACH OF THE BUSHES AND YES OBAMA,