When I use to think about the 1960s I always thought about the Civil Rights Movement. Before this project I didn’t realize the impact the Cold War had on life back then. I didn’t know the fear children lived in back then. Today I joke about the end of the world as if it’s something that I don’t have to worry about. For kids growing up in the ‘60s however the end of the world was a very present reality. To find out more about this era from an eyewitness I interviewed my neighbor who was in grade school during that time. These are the questions I intended to ask, but I didn't ask all of them and many of them were expanded. This research project, which focuses on life during the Cold War in the 1960s, shows that it was a very scary time for Americans back then. In fact it brought a “new sensitivity to what we can do to ourselves” (Gugino, personal communication, April 26, 2011).
Who was Khrushchev?
The first subject I talked about with my interviewee was Nikita Khrushchev. I didn’t know anything about him, but upon doing more research I found that for many people today they see Khrushchev as this funny looking man (see fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Khrushchev on Front Page. Source Life Magazine
Some of this sentiment was felt back then too. In 1959 Khrushchev visited the United States. As he landed and got out of the plane “a women in the crowd exclaimed, ‘what a funny little man!’’’ (Carlson, 2009). However, according my intervewe most citizens did not find him funny at all. One particular incident caused her to be very scared of what he could do.
The Incident
Picture a bald, short man sitting at the UN General Assembly in 1960 (see fig. 2).
He now leans under the table and pulls out his shoe. He rises and declares “We will bury you!” and slams the shoe on the table. This
man was Nikita Khrushchev and he was the leader of the Soviet Union during the 1960s. Khrushchev’s foreign minister Gromyko was a little unsure how to handle this action. He said that he “became very tense [because he] had to do something to support the head of the Soviet delegation” (“The Shoe”). However this statement was scary for many in US. During that time the threat of an atomic bomb was much more present than what we can imagine today. For my interviewee she took this statement very literally. In her thinking some day the atomic bomb was going to come and now she had this statement to back up her fears. She even had nightmares because of it. She took Khrushchev very seriously in what he said.
Continuing Terrors
Nikita Khrushchev had become the official leader of the Soviet Union in 1955. He sought to help his people through his policy of “de-stalinization”. With this policy he had some success in improving the welfare of his people. However he still promoted Communism which strained the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. One thing that concerned Khrushchev was that the Soviet Union was falling behind in the arms race. This tension resulted in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis which for some was one of the scariest events of the Cold War.
It had begun when in the earlier half of 1962 Khrushchev, with the agreement of Fidel Castro in Cuba, planted secret nuclear missiles 90 miles away from the shore of Florida. While the United States had seen increasing Soviet activity in Cuba during that summer, it wasn’t until October 14 that a US plane flew back with photos of objects that looked like Soviet weapons. This launched an invasion into Cuba. The tension continued to climb until Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles. For the United States citizens the threat of those missiles being so close to home only made the fear of nuclear war more present. Though my interviewee didn’t remember this incident too well, she suspects that it was something many parents didn’t want to talk about with their kids.
Other Influences
The children in those days didn’t have to hear from their parents what a scary time they lived. New movies and other media brought home the reality that any day the world could come to an end. One of the earlier films was “Duck and Cover.” The film begins with Bert the turtle walking along. A monkey dangling from a tree explodes a stick of dynamite near Bert as Bert drops to the ground and hides in his shell. The film goes on to tell the children who were watching it that the atomic bomb is a very real threat that they had to prepare for since it could happen any time. The film was produced “to teach children how to survive a nuclear attack by themselves, without adult assistance” (Jacobs, 2010, p. 28). It was this film that began the duck and cover drills the children did in school.
"Duck and Cover" Source maesterjay (Youtube).
When I watched the "Daisy Ad" that my interviewee told me about I was shocked that the candidate Lyndon Johnson would run something like that. It made more sense though when my interviewee said how easy it was back then "to play off people's fears" (Gugino, personal communication, April 26, 2011). I was not surprised when I read that the New York Times said it was "probably the most controversial TV commercial of all time" (as cited in "Daisy"). My interviewee said that the ad probably only aired once. What shocked me was how Johnson combined the innocence of a little girl with the evil terror of the atomic bomb.
New sci-fi movies also made an impact on many people back in the '60s. Many of the popular stories were those of alien invasions. These invasions were seen "as products of Cold War ideology in which [they] stood for Soviet invasion" (Prono, 2005). My interviewee mentioned two sci-fi films that particularly stood out to her. One of them was "The Day the Earth Stood Still." It is about an alien and his robot who come to Earth during the Cold War to tell the people they needed to stop fighting. My interviewee said that to her this was a "commentary on our violent human nature" (Gugino, personal communication, May 14, 2011).
Another movie that had an impact on my interviewee at the time was "Them!" This film depicts ants that were mutated after the first atomic bomb and they have to be destroyed or else the world would never look the same. My interviewee said that to her this movie "embodied worst fears of nuclear power" (Gugino, personal communication, May 14, 2011).
My interviewee gave me a copy of The Atomic Cafe (see fig. 3) which was made in 1982. It contains clips of the major events and
other media that occurred during the age. Though it is meant to put somewhat of a comic twist to what was happening at the time, one can still see what people were experiencing and the role that the media had in their lives.
Though there had already been American deaths in Vietnam in 1959, the conflict did not pick up until Lyndon Johnson increased the military over there in 1964. Also the role of the United States in Vietnam continued to increase. After a peak of troops in 1969, the number of troops began to diminish as the decade came to an end (Cosmas, 2003). My interviewee said that it was a frustrating time for Americans as there was an "endless drone of news stories of deaths" (Gugino, personal communication, May 14, 2011).
The girl to the left was one of the most shocking photos that people saw during that time. Because of the increase in personal televisions during that era, the Vietnam War earned the title as the first "television war". For the first time during a major war, people could see everyday on their tvs video clips of what was happening. Some have blamed the anti-war sentiment during that time on the fact that the television media did have such an impact.
Fig. 4. Vietnam War Girl. Source (Collins, "Vietnam", 2010)
Conclusion
Today I live my life unconcerned that any day the world could be wiped out. I don't have to perform duck and cover drills because there isn't an imminent threat of an atomic bomb. My interviewee told me about the Doomsday clock that back in her day she took very seriously. It counted down the minutes to midnight when the earth would be no more. She also says that having lived through the '60s she is more concerned about global warming then she might have been. Unlike me, she realizes in a more personal way just how destructive humans can be. I am grateful that though there is always a potential threat, at the moment I feel relatively secure compared to how my interviewee felt when she was growing up.
Coleman, David G. "Cuban Missile Crisis."Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 474-475.Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 8 May. 2011.
Cosmas, G. A. "Vietnam War." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 8. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 329-335. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 14 May 2011.
Jacobs, B. (2010). ATOMIC KIDS: DUCK AND COVER AND ATOMIC ALERT TEACH AMERICAN CHILDREN HOW TO SURVIVE ATOMIC ATTACK.Film & History (03603695), 40(1), 25-44. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Excellent opening to your intro...very vivid and pulls the reader right in!
Be sure to give the NAME of your interview source when you first mention her.
Very good in-text citation !
Hyperlink is great--very credible!
Note that in APA style, a personal interview does NOT appear on the References list! See this site for information: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/11/
The only thing that seems problematic is the citation:
“to teach children how to survive a nuclear attack by themselves, without adult assistance” (28).
It's not clear to me which source on the References page this is supposed to go with. (And I don't see a caption for the Duck and Cover video like I do for the other video).
Excellent opening to your intro...very vivid and pulls the reader right in!
ReplyDeleteBe sure to give the NAME of your interview source when you first mention her.
Very good in-text citation !
Hyperlink is great--very credible!
Note that in APA style, a personal interview does NOT appear on the References list! See this site for information: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/11/
Add a caption to the photo.
VERY strong paper, Katie!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that seems problematic is the citation:
“to teach children how to survive a nuclear attack by themselves, without adult assistance” (28).
It's not clear to me which source on the References page this is supposed to go with. (And I don't see a caption for the Duck and Cover video like I do for the other video).