Facts About Fallout Protection Pamphlet

This pamphlet, titled "Facts About Fallout Protection," was distributed throughout Ohio and the United States in the late 1950s. It encourages citizens to listen for CONELRAD (CONtrol of ELectronic RADiation) radio stations 640 and 1240 to stay informed of an emergency, and to prepare themselves and their families by creating fallout shelters. According to the pamphlet, fallout shelters should include food, water, and sleeping quarters for a family for two weeks. The pamphlet is 13 pages long and measures 3.25" x 8" (8.26 x 20.32 cm). In the 1950s, many Americans were concerned about the rise of communism and especially the Soviet Union. The dropping of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in 1945 began an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union--each nation sought to develop more destructive weapons than the other. In the so-called Cold War, the two nations struggled for political, ideological, and economic superiority. Concerns over potential nuclear war during the 1950s and 1960s led to a government campaign to teach defense strategies such as "duck and cover" and to encourage citizens to create fallout shelters to protect them from nuclear attacks