find 4 quotes and explain them

Document #1 “Nuclear Threats” Guiding Questions:

1. In what ways were children raised to fear nuclear bombs? 2. Identify some of the moments that inspired fear about nuclear death. 3. How did the “deterrence” approach use fear as a mechanism?

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CHAPTER NINE

Nuclear Threats

How, above all, will they end? By any natural fascination of frost or flood or from the artful Obliterating bang whereby God's rebellious image After thousands of thankless years spent in thinking about it, Finally finds a solid

Proof of its independence

AUDEN, 'THE AGE OF ANXIETY'

A t 10.45 on the morning of 8 February 1951 enemy planes dropped nuclear-primed bombs over New York City. Mrs

Bertha Smith, a sixth-grade teacher in Public School 75 at 735 West End Avenue, responded promptly to the 'sudden white flash' , ordering her young charges to 'take cover'. Children threw them­ selves to the ground, curling into tight balls with their backs to the window. W ithin less than a minute the attack was over: it had been the first 'no signal' drill in America .

Children, teachers and parents were all duly terrorised . Despite evidence to the contrary, the principal of Public School 7 5 insisted that the drills had been carried out in a way that did not excessively 'alarm' the children. According to him, parents supported the drills, believing that 'even if their children were alarmed . . . it is still more important to have them ready for any eventuality'. 1 Yet in many schools fear had been brutally instilled . For instance, the prin­ cipal of an elementary school in Queens, New York, walked into a

264 Zones of Confrontation

quarter of Americans confessed to being worried about the atomic bomb. The 'non-worriers' were not unaware of their parlous state, but they could not see the point in fretting about a threat over which they were powerless, nor did they believe it was worthwhile wor­ rying incessantly about a danger that would kill them so quickly any way.36

A similar survey carried out by the American Institute of P ublic Opinion in the early 1950s found that half of people living in the largest American cities believed that there was a 'distinct likelihood of an atom bomb attack on their cities in the event of another war'. A further quarter thought there was a fair chance that their cities would be bombed. Only 17 per cent thought it unlikely. However, their fears did not translate into political action. When asked whether they were involved in a civil-defence programme, 93 per cent responded 'no'. 37 This suggested that high levels of fear about nuclear war did not result in widespread political action to reduce the likelihood of war.