For decades, Kennedy and his extended family had vacationed in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a Cape Cod town where his father had bought a home in the 1920s. The president himself wasn’t exempt from this call to action. We owe that kind of insurance to our families-and to our country.” Addressing the nation in a televised speech on July 25, he said, “In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be saved-if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is available. Kennedy encouraged but didn’t subsidize construction of these private bunkers (though his administration did implement a fallout shelter loan program).
While most of these makeshift shelters would do little to shield those inside from an initial blast, they ostensibly offered some protection against radioactive fallout. Some citizens built private bunkers in their basements and backyards, following instructions laid out in government pamphlets. Students participated in “ duck and cover” drills at school, practicing how to protect themselves from an explosion. In addition to establishing public shelters, officials emphasized individual responsibility in the event of nuclear attack. Once identified, these shelters were marked as such and stocked with supplies.Ī family fallout shelter housed in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
After securing $207 million in funding, the federal government started surveying schools and other public buildings to determine their suitability as potential bunkers. That May, Nelson Rockefeller, then-chair of the Civil Defense Committee of the Conference of Governors, encouraged Kennedy to initiate a national fallout shelter program. Eisenhower’s administration, the question of how to handle America’s increasingly contentious relationship with the Soviets was now in the hands of newly elected president John F. While Khrushchev had directed his comments at Dwight D. Issuing a taunting challenge to the United States government, he said, “Let’s have a peaceful rocket contest, just like a rifle-shooting match, and they’ll see for themselves.”įour years later, in 1961, the threat of nuclear war loomed large over the U.S.
In November 1957, Soviet Communist Party chief Nikita Khrushchev bragged to an American reporter about the effectiveness of his country’s long-range missiles.
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