One of many U.S. Government films made in the wake of the detonation of the H-Bomb, CIVIL DEFENSE A PRIMER FOR SURVIVAL attempts to reassure an anxious public that thermonuclear war is survivable.
A write up of this film appears at the Atomic Theater website: http://www.atomictheater.com/aprimerforsurvival.htm Check out the site for a great overview of the Civil Defense films from this era.
Quoting from that site: “Hosted by Dave Garroway, A Primer for Survival consisted of four short episodes, each written to address a different aspect of the National Fallout Shelter System and life under the threat of nuclear war. Garroway, a longtime NBC anchorman and founder of The Today Show, was known for his laid back demeanor and soft spoken tone. The series opens by exploring public sentiment toward fallout shelters in A Fact of Life, which also examines moral issues attached to the subject. The second episode, The Sword and the Shield, presents a number of scientific experiments to validate the usefulness of fallout shelters. This is continued in the third installment, Fallout, which looks specifically at the damage radioactive particles can do to human, animal, and plant life. The series concludes by discussing what life would be like after a nuclear war in Post-Attack World. Though designed for television broadcasting, A Primer for Survival was also made available through the OCD in 16mm format for any interested parties looking to promote civil defense.”
“Despite opening with clips of Operation Ivy, which successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, this third installment of the Primer For Survival series does not focus on the initial burst of flame and heat. Instead, as Dave Garroway explains, the worst danger for the majority of the population would come much later in the form of fallout radiation. Utilizing clips from the 1963 Office of Civil Defense film About Fallout, Garroway highlights the National Fallout Shelter System as the best means of survival for anyone caught downwind of a nuclear explosion.”
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
