NATIONAL INSECURITY IN THE NUCLEAR AGE: COLD WAR MANHOOD AND THE GENDERED DISCOURSE OF U.S. SURVIVAL, 1945-1960 A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Melissa A. Steinmetz August, 2014 Dissertation written by Melissa A. Steinmetz B.A., Oberlin College, 1994 M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2014 Approved by Dr. Mary Ann Heiss, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Elizabeth Smith-Pryor, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Walter Hixson, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. David Trebing, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Patricia Dunmire, Member Doctoral Dissertation Committee Accepted by Dr. Kenneth Bindas, Chair, Department of History Dr. James Blank, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .……………………………………………………….………....….iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………...…………………………………….vii CHAPTER I. Introduction ……………………………………………………..………..1 II. Origins of United States Civil Defense ……………………………...….19 World War I ………………………………………………….…..22 World War II …………………………………………………….29 A Hero Stays Home: World War II Civil Defense in It’s a Wonderful Life …………………………………………………...48 The “Situation” in Korea ………………………………………...57 III. “These are lovely leashes, aren’t they?” Momism, Civil Defense, and the Pursuit of Security …………………………...……………..……….80 Civil Defense in the “Age of Anxiety”: An Overview …………118 IV. Selling Civil Defense ……………...…………………………………....138 Drilling for Survival: Operation Alert …………………………..171 V. Imagining the Inconceivable: Fictional Narratives of Nuclear Apocalypse ……………………...……………………………………...183 Fertility and Fatherhood in Mr. Adam ………………………….208 Civil Defense, Fertility, and Motherhood in Tomorrow! ………216 “Four men . alone with the last woman on Earth” …………...223 Race and Masculinity in The World, the Flesh and the Devil ......235 VI. Conclusion ………………………...……………………………………263 VII. Epilogue …………..……………………………….……………….......275 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………...………306 iii LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 It’s Up to You—Protect the Nation’s Honor, Enlist Now ………………………..25 2.2 Man the Guns, Join the Navy …………………………………………………….31 2.3 They’ve got the guts—Give ‘em more firepower ………………………………..32 2.4 Jenny on the job: eats man size meals ………………………………………........34 2.5 “President Decorates Harry Bailey” ……………………………………………..54 2.6 He Serves, Too—Join the Civilian Defense! .........................................................57 2.7 “Somethin’ tells me, Sam, you don’t love me quite – so much” ………………….68 3.1 Walter Mitty with Gertrude and Queenie ………………………………...…........89 3.2 State Fair: Boy Scouts Promoting Civil Defense …..……………………......….112 3.3 Kidde Kokoon H-Bomb Hideaway ……………………………………………..122 3.4 Housewives Needed: Operation Skywatch …......…………………...………….137 4.1 “If We are Bombed: A Handbook for YOUR PROTECTION” ………………...158 5.1 Nose Art: “Wanda” ……………………………………………………………..203 5.2 Physicist Signing “Fat Man” …………………………………………………....204 5.3 Miss Atomic Bomb, 1957 ……………………………………………………....205 5.4 Mr. Adam ………………...…………………………………………….……….208 5.5 Tomorrow! ...........................................................................................................216 iv 5.6 “Michael” (Five) ………………………………………………………………..225 5.7 “Atomic Suds” (Five) …………………………………………………………..226 5.8 “Charles” and “Michael” (Five) ………………………………………………...228 5.9 Death in the City (Five) ……………………………………………...………….232 5.10 “Michael” and “Roseanne” (Five) ……………………………………………...233 5.11 “Ralph” with wagon (The World, the Flesh and the Devil) ……………………..237 5.12 “Ralph” serving “Sarah” (WFD) ………………………………………………..240 5.13 “Ralph” vs. “Ben” (WFD) ………………………………………………………247 5.14 Statue of Atlas in front of Rockefeller Center, New York ………………………251 5.15 Examples of Atlas missile series ……………………………………………......252 5.16 “It Looks Darling!” ………………….…………………...……………………..257 6.1 “West Coast Gets Ready” ………………………………………………………271 7.1 “This is How You Can Protect Yourself” ………………………………………277 7.2 “Herman the Hermit Crab” ……………………………………………………..281 7.3 “Am I at Risk?” …………………………………………………………………282 7.4 Doomsday Preppers .…………………………………...…………....….….…..287 7.5 “Primitive Survival Rating” …………………………………………………….290 7.6 Survivalist Mom ………………………………………………………………..292 7.7 Modern Walter Mitty …………………………………………………………...294 7.8 Mitty the Explorer …...………………..………………………………………..296 7.9 Obama vs. Putin I ……………………………………………………………….299 v 7.10 “Putin actually reminds me . of my mother” ………………………………….300 7.11 Obama vs. Putin II ……………………………………………………………...301 7.12 Noah ……………………………………………………………………………304 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It takes a village to write a dissertation. First, thanks to Cathy Rokicky for mentoring me during my first year teaching at Cuyahoga Community College years ago. Her suggestion that I apply to Kent’s doctoral program started me on this path, and I will be forever grateful. I am also indebted to my first husband and dear friend, Carsten Bösmann, who has been an enthusiastic supporter of me and my work throughout my long career as a graduate student. His parents, Helmut and Moni, also supplied cheerful foreign language tutelage across many seasons; they not only invited me to take German lessons in Hamburg, but provided an abundance of Jever, delicious food, and warm conversation in their beautiful Lüneburg home. During the long process of researching and writing the dissertation, Uncle Dan never tired of watching my daughter, Molly, so that I could focus on work, and Aunt Celeste provided comfort—and food—on more occasions than I can count. Discussing history and life with my fellow graduate students at Kent, whether in Bowman 205 or at Ray’s downtown, helped me to sharpen my intellectual focus and to laugh when humor was sorely needed. In this regard, thanks especially to Matt Phillips, Erika Briesacher, and Nathan Fry. vii The members of my dissertation committee were generous with their time and gracious in their criticisms; they made me question my assumptions and clarify my thoughts, and I deeply appreciate their insights. My advisor, Ann Heiss, has been nothing short of heroic—I admire her intellectually, professionally, and personally. I feel honored to have been able to work under her guidance, and my gratitude for her commitment to seeing this project to completion is something I do not have adequate words to express. Thanks to my husband, P.J., for incredible patience, good humor, and encouragement throughout this process. I am glad that he has not become entirely domesticated as a result. I am also grateful to Molly for her cheerful pep talks as well as her complete faith in my ability to write this dissertation. When I was young, my father encouraged me to ask questions and listened to my thoughts with respect and interest—as a result, I believed that my ideas had merit. I hope that after reading this, he agrees. Last, I want to thank my mother, Ann. In the 1980s, she showed me the importance of loving one’s career. She demonstrated that women could be college professors, and that it was possible to write a dissertation while caring for a husband and young daughter. (In the “Acknowledgments” section of her dissertation, she thanked Dad and me for putting up with “far too many hamburgers.”) Although she has been gone for over twelve years, I miss my mother every day. This work is dedicated to her. viii CHAPTER I Introduction The use of atomic weapons against Japan in August 1945 ushered in a new age— not only in the context of international relations, but within U.S. popular culture as well. While Americans rejoiced that World War II had at last come to an end, the technological innovations that secured Allied victory also laid the groundwork for unprecedented anxiety. Suddenly, the destruction of the world through nuclear annihilation became a practical possibility rather than simply fodder for science fiction novels. Negotiating this unfamiliar terrain, American policymakers, military leaders, and ordinary citizens debated strategies surrounding civil defense and national security, often utilizing gendered language and reproductive metaphors that reflected concerns about American masculinity. Popular films and novels of the era also imagined a variety of post- apocalyptic American societies if a worst-case scenario should ever be realized. In both political discourse and popular culture, Americans asked similar questions: Would it be possible to survive a nuclear war? What should men and women do to protect themselves—if anything? Would federal attempts to prepare the nation for nuclear attack 1 2 serve as a public acknowledgment of U.S. vulnerability? And in the event of nuclear annihilation, who might be left to repopulate America? This dissertation examines how the discourse of American survival reflected gendered constructions of Cold War national identity. In the last thirty years, historians of U.S. foreign relations have broadened their scope to examine relationships between America’s cultural landscape and U.S. political, military, and diplomatic initiatives. Michael Hunt’s Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy articulated the importance of understanding how ideological constructions—dependent upon frameworks of race and gender—function to reduce complexities to the understandable and familiar.1 In addition, historians such as Emily Rosenberg, Kristin Hoganson, and Amy Kaplan have explored what Amy Greenberg refers to as the “mutually constitutive nature of gender and American foreign relations.”2