GOC volunteers staffed observation posts and tracking offices known as “filter centers.” They constituted an extra early warning system that supposedly would give civilians the time they needed to seek shelter. Air Force reactivated the Ground Observer Corps (GOC), a World War II-era network of civilian volunteer plane spotters. Radar could detect incoming enemy aircraft in some cases, but not all. military planners assumed that if the Soviets attacked, they would use long-range bombers armed with atomic weapons. Civil defense officials believed that preparation was one of two primary keys to survival. Homeowners were urged to prepare refuge rooms equipped with canned food, flashlights, and other emergency supplies. School children were taught to “duck and cover” in the event of an atomic bomb flash. “With a dependable warning system and properly constructed shelters you are likely to survive an atom bomb blast,” the Minneapolis Star reported. “Duck and Cover” Periodĭuring the first few years of Minnesota’s civil defense mobilization, state and local officials repeatedly assured the public that nuclear war was survivable. A few months later, Minnesota established the Civil Defense Department to coordinate all civil defense efforts in the state. In December 1950, a new federal agency, the Federal Civil Defense Administration, began working with state governments to implement programs designed to help citizens survive a nuclear attack. As tensions between the two countries increased, the threat of atomic warfare loomed larger. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 and subsequent suspicions of covert Soviet involvement in the conflict only deepened the U.S.–U.S.S.R. The Soviets’ blockade of Berlin in 1948 and their successful test of an atomic bomb in 1949 confirmed that a global superpower competition was at hand. In the years immediately following World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two most powerful nations in the world-and as geopolitical rivals. The civil defense strategies employed in Minnesota changed significantly as the perceived military threat evolved. During the extended Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, many Minnesotans prepared for the terrifying possibility of nuclear war by participating in a variety of civil defense efforts.
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