History fo Civil Defense in the United States 1945- Present :: essays research papers

write up of polished Defense in the United States 1945- Present story of Civil Defense in the United States 1945 - PresentCivil Defense HistoryThe purpose of this paper is to outline the development of civil abnegation in the United States from 1945 until the present. Also addressed are selected medical aspects of civil defense and lessons learned from prior civil defense initiatives. Civil defense is delimit as activities organized by civilians for their own protection in conviction of warfare or disaster (Hyperdictionary, 2004). Civil defense became a study issue during serviceman War I as the conduct of war between nations expanded to include attacks on cities, factories, and civilians that were essential to war in the industrial age. Civil defense became even more important during World War II. The explosion of the Soviet Unions first atomic bombs signaled the fact that civil defense would remain a permanent reparation of the Cold War (Dobbs, 2001). Between 1945 and 194 9, various agencies undertook studies of civil defense (Tennessee speck Management Agency, 2004).During the 1950s, American civil defense was characterized by a city- excrement strategy (Dobbs, 2001). The American city- voidance plan called for citizens in highly populated areas to put outperform between themselves and the explosive effects and fallout of a nuclear attack. In their original incarnation, Civil Defense programs sought to develop sheltering capabilities to house community in attacked cities. Civil defense planners were also developing mass evacuation plans for supposed targets of the USSR. During the 1953-1958 time period, there continued to be arguments over whether evacuation or sheltering was to be the nations policy regarding response to a nuclear attack. prexy John F. Kennedy, sensing that the overwhelming majority of state and local government activitys were doing secondary if anything to develop a sheltering capability, decided to make civil defense read iness once again a central issue. A full-fledged nationally shelter program, funded by the federal government was developed.In the early 1970s, federal level organizations moved toward allowing the dual-use of civil defense funds and equipment to be use for natural disaster preparedness. For a brief period of time, the federal government allowed the states to treat natural disaster preparedness as their primary spot with respect to the use of federal civil defense funds. This changed again, however, following the dominance of Gerald Ford to the Presidency, and once again, states were required to treat planning for a nuclear attack as their primary function.