The USA’s Reaction to the Cold War crisis 1957-63, JFK, conflict, and building the family’s fallout shelter.

To view this event online please contact Sylvia Usher, usher@usher.karoo.co.uk for information.

The Cold War years, the late 1940s to 1989, were dominated by the military and political rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union. It could have erupted into deadly conflict, and in 1957-63 this clash seemed imminent.  The United States’ nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles meant their armaments were much greater than Russia’s. But Soviet success in space: Sputnik orbiting the globe, and in April 1961 carrying Yuri Gagarin, the first human rocketed into space, revealed Russia’s powerful scientific advances.

President John F. Kennedy responded by ordering the space programme, challenging Soviet control in Berlin; and then attempting to overturn the Cuban revolution with the disastrous Bay of Pigs expedition. Nikita Khrushchev, the new Soviet leader, made himself significant on the world stage.

US Cold War Poster
US Cold War Poster

In October 1962 Russia began placing ballistic missiles in Cuba, pointing these towards the USA.  The threat of world war loomed. It is easy now to concentrate on Kennedy steering the world to a peaceful outcome. Records reveal this was a terrifying crisis with no certain outcome.

US family fallout shelter
US family fallout shelter

How did this situation affect people?  Dr. Bishop has researched the impact on American men who soon believed that to survive a nuclear attack their family needed a ‘Fallout’ shelter. Thomas Bishop will discuss the social effect which inspired American men in the 1960s.

Thomas Bishop leads the American history programme at Lincoln University. His book, Every Home a Fortress: Cold War Fatherhood and the Family Fallout Shelter was published in 2020.