| This dissertation chronicles the earliest years of the Atomic Age, drawing on the memories of those who were children in those often troubled times. It argues, that American children were active, albeit often unwilling, participants in the long struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, and that understanding this experience is, to borrow the phrase of N. Ray Hiner and Joseph Hawes, "essential to any comprehensive history of American society and culture."1; The young Cold Warriors understood the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union to mean their own homes, families, schools and friends might be destroyed in nuclear annihilation and thus linked the international tension with the atomic bomb. From 1945 to 1963, Americans underwent periods of intense nuclear concern, followed by relative quiescence. However, even in the quiet times nuclear issues swirled through the American consciousness on a different plane. In popular culture and in classrooms, young people were bombarded with images of the atomic bomb and reminded of the Cold War.; Four commonalties link the lives of children in these years. First, as international tensions waxed and waned, domestic attention to the Soviet threat, expressed in civil defense drills, shelter scares, concerns over fallout, and comic book stories and movie scripts, also rose and fell. Thus, children were forced to confront the Cold War before they were out of elementary school. Second, for Atomic Age children, there existed a sense of geographical immediacy to the threat. Children around the nation believed that the Russian bombs were aimed specifically at their communities and, often, their families. A third commonality of experience was psychological adaptation to the threat under various guises including fear, confusion, denial, and bravado. A final commonality was the ongoing effort by adults to help young people adjust to the threat of the Cold War. Adults regularly contemplated the role of children in the Cold War, in hopes of comforting and protecting them. As this dissertation shows, few children were comforted, although they longed to be.; 1Joseph M. Hawes and N. Ray Hiner, "Looking for Waldo: Reflections on the History of Children and Childhood in the Postmodern Era," Paper presented to the History of Childhood in America Conference, Washington, D.C., August 5--6, 2000, 1. Copy in the author's possession. |
