Operation Alert,
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The Covina Ardus, July 18, 1957. Click on article to see full page.
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Over 200 cities participated in the staged drills, where sirens blared and people were guided into public shelters and other areas of safety during the "attack," from East to West coasts.
Videos such as the one here were produced to show the effectiveness of the evacuations. The reports and videos produced from these events were not only for American eyes, but also for the international public, including the Soviet government. Events such as these were created to knock the American public out of their complacency in the idea of an atomic attack. However, since all of the media coverage highlighted the positive results of the "tests," it did not increase the participation of the American people, as it had originally desired. |
One of the first examples of Cold War pageantry took place in Mosinee, Wisconsin, under the name of "Day Under Communism," on May 1, 1950. This mock Soviet takeover of the city lasted for one day, with official and public participation. Like "Operation Alert," media played a key part in the "success" of the event.
A mock newspaper was even published for the day of the event, changing the title of the paper to "The Red Star", and even published in a pink-hue to highlight the communist image. People were forced to eat black bread and potato soup, Many other events were on the schedule of the day's activities, including burning books (none of which actually happened, of course). The event in Mosinee, too, resulted in the production of a short film entitled "Face to Face with Communism."
Although the event was viewed popularly after Mosinee, two more cities, Hartley, Iowa, and Rushville, Indiana attempted similar events, but received less enthusiastic response, and the program ceased to continue.
A mock newspaper was even published for the day of the event, changing the title of the paper to "The Red Star", and even published in a pink-hue to highlight the communist image. People were forced to eat black bread and potato soup, Many other events were on the schedule of the day's activities, including burning books (none of which actually happened, of course). The event in Mosinee, too, resulted in the production of a short film entitled "Face to Face with Communism."
Although the event was viewed popularly after Mosinee, two more cities, Hartley, Iowa, and Rushville, Indiana attempted similar events, but received less enthusiastic response, and the program ceased to continue.
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"Operation Alert" hit Los Angeles at 1:11pm on June 12, 1957, along with 155 other cities on the same day. As reported in The Covina Argus' mock newspaper coverage of the event, "A great portion of Los Angeles Friday lay devastated under a deadly pall of contaminated nuclear dust created by the hypothetical dropping of two 20 megaton H-Bombs by enemy forces." It even goes into further detail to explain that the hardest hit areas were "for miles surrounding ground zero at Sixth and Beacon Streets in San Pedro and at Hollywood Boulevard and Wilton Place in the foothills of Hollywood" (refer to article at top of page).
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Although the first couple of years of Operation Alert exercises went relatively smoothly, as years went on, more unrest was seen by citizens who actively protested the events, or passively refused to participate. The FCDA even fired its own Deputy Director for Civil Defense in D.C. who called the program "not a drill, but a show." "Operation Alert" finally came to end in 1962, with its last staged attack in 1961.
Sources:
http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/12/operation-alert-1955-protests.html
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/civildef.cfm
The Sun Telegram, July 14, 1957
Covina Argus, July 18, 1957
http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/12/operation-alert-1955-protests.html
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/civildef.cfm
The Sun Telegram, July 14, 1957
Covina Argus, July 18, 1957