President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters - October 6th, 1961

On this day in 1961, in a letter to the Committee on Civil Defense, President John F. Kennedy advised American families to build fallout shelters as protection against a possible nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that shines a light on the ups and
downs of everyday history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're

(00:22):
talking about the time when Americans were encouraged to seek
refuge from a nuclear bomb that thankfully never dropped. The
day was October six, nineteen sixte In a letter to

(00:43):
the Committee on Civil Defense, President John F. Kennedy advised
American families to build fallout shelters as protection against a
possible nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. He also pledged
that those who lacked the means to construct their own
shelters would soon be provided such protection through the US

(01:06):
Civil Defense Program. In the early days of the Cold War,
frequent duck and cover drills became a regular feature of
public life in the nineteen fifties. The idea that hiding
under a desk could offer any protection against nuclear fallout
seems laughable today, but the practice found a great deal

(01:28):
of support and government. In fact, it was endorsed and
implemented by President Harry Truman. But as Cold War tensions
ratcheted up in the late nineteen fifties, leaders in American
government began to wonder if a more effective survival plan
was in order. Many became convinced that building personal bomb

(01:49):
shelters could save lives in the event of nuclear war,
but this more plausible idea didn't gain as much traction
in the White House and was never promoted by the
Eisenhower administration. By the time President Kennedy took office, in
credible reports had been released backing the construction of shelters

(02:11):
as a means of surviving a nuclear strike. The threat
of war with the Soviet Union looked more likely by
the day, so on October sixth of that year, Kennedy
became the first sitting president to encourage citizens to build
personal bomb shelters. In his letter, Kennedy said, quote in

(02:32):
simple terms, this goal is to reach for fallout protection
for every American as rapidly as possible. Protection against this
threat is within reach of an informed America willing to
face the facts and act. The people of this country
will be urged by me, by the governors, and by

(02:53):
other leaders to do what is within their means. In
response to Kennedy's call to action, Congress approved the appropriation
of one hundred and sixty nine million dollars to identify
and stock fallout shelters in existing public and private buildings.
The scientific community was more hesitant to endorse the plan,

(03:17):
fearing that the efficacy of fallout shelters had been exaggerated,
as it had been with the duck and cover drills. Nonetheless,
the media quickly got on board and began promoting the
construction of shelters wherever possible. In short order, businesses began
selling prefabricated shelters as well as do it yourself home

(03:39):
conversion kits. Display models appeared in shopping centers, and national
publications such as Life magazine touted the optimistic claim that
fallout shelters would save nine seven per cent of the
population should a nuclear attack occur. That same Life article
included a letter from President Kennedy which said, quote, we

(04:03):
owe that kind of insurance to our families and to
our country. The time to start is now. In the
coming months, I hope to let every citizen know what
steps he can take without delay, to protect his family
in case of attack. I know you would not want
to do less. But Kennedy's assumption was soon proved incorrect.

(04:26):
Time magazine ran an article that year titled gun Thy Neighbor.
It explored the ethical question of building a private family
shelter and included a chilling statement from a shelter owner
in the suburbs of Chicago. The statement read quote, when
I get my shelter finished, I'm going to mount a

(04:47):
machine gun at the hatch to keep the neighbors out
if the bomb falls. If the stupid American public will
not do what they have to to save themselves, I'm
not going to run the risk of not being able
used the shelter. I've taken the trouble to provide my
own family. Magazine writers weren't the only ones to raise

(05:07):
concerns about the erosion of civic duty in the face
of nuclear destruction. Academic journalists, scientists, and religious leaders also
spoke out about the moral dilemma of private shelter ownership.
The question of whether to build one was a popular
topic of conversation in ninety one, but in the end,

(05:29):
most American families decided against it. A Gallop poll from
that year reported that nine percent of Americans had no
intention of building a fallout shelter, and other contemporary polls
reported similar levels. Of disinclination. Most people considered nuclear war
a serious possibility, but they weren't convinced a shelter would

(05:53):
provide enough protection to be worth the money and effort,
and they didn't want the responsibility of deciding who in
the neighborhood should potentially live or die. It's difficult to
say how many Americans actually built their own fallout shelters.
Many who did so constructed them in secret to avoid
the judgment of their neighbors. In June of nineteen sixty one,

(06:17):
the reported number of privately owned fallout shelters in the
US was about sixty thousand. By nineteen sixty five, the
estimate had risen to some two hundred thousand. That may
sound like a lot, but the number represented just point
four percent of US homes At the time. The shelter

(06:39):
construction rate fell well short of what President Kennedy and
others had hoped for, but the topic came to the
forefront yet again a year later, during the Cuban Missile
Crisis standoff with the U s s R. With the
world on the brink of nuclear war, many Americans scrambled
to hoard canned goods and other supply US and to

(07:00):
put the finishing touches on their backyard bomb shelters. Thankfully,
the crisis was averted and no one had to find
out just how ineffective their shelters likely were. In the
years following nineteen sixty two, the fallout shelter craze lost
its momentum and nearly six hundred shelter construction companies went bankrupt.

(07:24):
Many of the shelters that were built, both private and public,
still exists today. They are austere reminders of a time
when a fearful public grappled with the question of what
we should and shouldn't do to survive. I'm Gabe Lousier
and hopefully you now know a little more about history

(07:46):
today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep
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my way at this Day at I heart media dot com.
Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

(08:08):
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
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