Unit 5 Post #3

The Cold War was a state of political hostility mainly between the United States (and other democratic nations) and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (and the other communist nations it had control over like Cuba and North Korea). The Cold War brought the US and the USSR into a game of nuclear chicken, and the world watched with bated breath, wondering which country would be the first to push the button. The Atomic Cafe was a documentary created in 1982, right after the violent Vietnam War and traumatizing Watergate Scandal. Covering the span of the era of nuclear warfare, The Atomic Cafe is a compilation of archival footage from the 1940s to early 1960s showing the misinformation the American government gave its citizens about nuclear weapons.
     One of the claims that the filmmakers make in The Atomic Cafe is that in times of crisis, it is the role of the government to unite the people. Most of the footage came from propaganda and army recruitment videos, including the "Duck and Cover" video, which came from the Federal Civil Defense Administration. Although we know that ducking under a desk isn't going to help save you from an atomic bomb, the government attempted to make its citizens feel better, safer, and more confident, instead of living in constant fear of a nuclear attack. As you can see, the video itself is ridiculous, because covering the back of your neck won't protect you from a nuclear explosion, it was necessary for the government to create a video to help children understand.
The government has an obligation to protect its people in times of warfare and help them prepare for foreign attacks, a point that the filmmakers made in The Atomic Cafe. I hope the "Duck & Cover" jingle gets stuck in your head for a very long time- it is in mine.