were children actually told to duck and cover if the place was about to be nuked?

Question

did they actually do that in the 60s? if they did..how did the governmetn think that would do anything...pretty foolish.

Answer 1

Duck and Cover was a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear detonation which the United States government taught to generations of United States school children from the late 1940s into the 1980s. This was supposed to protect them in the event of an unexpected nuclear attack which, they were told, could come at any time without warning. Immediately after they saw a flash, they had to stop what they were doing and get on the ground under some cover – such as a table, or at least next to a wall – and assume fetal position, lying face down and covering their heads with their hands.

Critics have said that this training would be of little, if any, help in the event of thermonuclear war,[citation needed] and had little effect other than promoting a state of unease and paranoia.

Today, "Drop, Cover and Hold On" is taught in areas which are prone to earthquakes.

Background
The United States monopoly on nuclear weapons was broken in 1949 when the Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear device, and many in the government and public perceived that the United States was more vulnerable than it ever had been before. Duck and cover exercises had quickly become a part of Civil Defense drills that every American citizen, from kids to the elderly, practiced so as to be ready in the event of nuclear war. In 1950, during the first big Civil Defense push of the Cold War, the movie Duck and Cover was produced (by the Federal Civil Defense Administration) for school showings in 1951. At the time, it was believed the main dangers of a Hiroshima-type nuclear blast was mainly heat and blast damage: radioactive fallout itself was not clearly identified until 1954 after the Castle Bravo weapons test in the Marshall Islands caused sickness and death in Japanese fishermen on the fishing vessel the Lucky Dragon.

Assessment
The advice to "duck and cover" holds well in many situations where structural destabilization or debris may be expected such as during earthquakes or tornados. At a sufficient distance from a nuclear explosion, the shock wave would produce similar results and ducking and covering would perhaps prove adequate. However within a certain radius (depending on its height and yield), ducking and covering would do little to protect against the intense heat and radiation following a nuclear explosion.

The exercises of civil defense are now seen as having less practical use than political or cultural use: to keep the danger of nuclear war high on the public mind, while also assuring the American people that something could be done to defend against nuclear attack.[citation needed] The duck and cover exercises remain a unique part of the American Red Scare culture, as neither Soviet people or Western Europeans during the Cold War, nor citizens of North Korea today had anything even remotely similar (though all did have other sorts of civil defense education).[citation needed]

Elementary school children on military installations during the Cuban Missile Crisis confused fire drills with "duck and cover" drills and hid under desks and bathrooms instead of exiting school buildings.[citation needed]

Some critics have drawn comparisons with the "duct tape alert" issued by the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, advising citizens to prepare to seal a room of their house with duct tape (including, ironically, the ventilation shafts and windows, which can lead to carbon dioxide poisoning and suffocation) to protect from terrorist attacks.[citation needed]

However, it can also be argued that, due to the nature of nuclear weapons, some protection, whatever its form, is better than none.[citation needed] Not everyone would be within the instant-vaporization radius of ground zero, and the duck and cover method can be rather effective in preventing injuries due to debris, radiation burns, and 'flash' burns.[citation needed] Moreover, the general consensus is such that, if you have warning at all, you stand a chance of survival should you get cover.[citation needed] It was also clearly labeled as a 'last-ditch' defense to be used 'when you see the flash',[citation needed] when one has little or no warning : if the duck and cover method was compared to a well-prepared blast shelter, it will always fall short.

A testament to the effectiveness, however limited, of the duck and cover method is that it is still widely practiced in the United States. In states prone to tornados, school children are urged to 'duck and cover' against a solid inner wall of a school, if time does not permit seeking better shelter during a tornado warning.[citation needed] The practice is also very widely practiced in schools in states along the West Coast of the United States, where Earthquakes are commonplace. Ducking and covering in either scenario would theoretically afford significant protection from falling or flying debris.

In an earthquake, people are encouraged to "drop, cover and hold on": to get underneath a piece of furniture, cover their heads (and eyes if possible) and hold onto the furniture. This advice also encourages people not to run out of a shaking building, because a large majority of earthquake injuries are due to broken bones from people falling and tripping during shaking. While it is unlikely that "drop, cover and hold on" will protect against a building collapse, buildings built in earthquake prone areas in the United States are usually built to Earthquake "Life Safety" codes, and a building collapse (even during an earthquake) is rare. "Drop, cover and hold on" may not be appropriate for all locations or building types, but many experts agree it is the appropriate emergency response to an earthquake in the United States.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Yes, school children were led through "duck and cover" drills as part of a preparation scheme in anticipation of possible nuclear attack. There are, in fact, some old educational film shorts out there that focus on this topic, including a famous one made by the Federal Civil Defense Administration which was first shown in schools in 1951.

The duck and cover drills began shortly after the Soviet Union acquired nuclear weapons (in 1949) and continued really up until the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963. I recall doing a duck and cover drill at my school in California in 1962 right after the Cuban Missile Crisis. I indicated a refusal to participate, precisely because of the stupidity of the notion that you could avoid nuclear annihilation by ducking under one's desk. But when threatened with suspension from school, I (sigh) ducked and covered.

Answer 4

Yes, children were told this in the States. And, it wasn't just in the 50s. I recall a drill (in the event of nuclear attack) which involved seeking cover under one's desk. This was during the Cuban missile crisis (in the school I attended it was also repeated shortly after JFK was shot). Everyone was also encouraged to build a bomb shelter (and it was routine to have announcements on tv and radio along the lines of: "This is a test...seek your nearest air raid shelter...")

The rationale behind these drills, I believe, had more to do with calming fears -- suggesting that people could survive such an attack. Telling you what to do, where to go, etc. (No one I knew believed we'd survive an attack). I don't believe the government did either -- but it was to prevent absolute panic. Ducking under a desk in a schoolroom would probably be preferable to getting trampled by a mass panic as everyone headed for the nearest exit...

Answer 5

Yes they were except it was in the '50s and I was one of the children then that did that. Pretty foolish not to use duck and cover if a nuke goes off. Duck and cover can save your life and your eyesight, here is why http://brneurosci.org/duckandcover.html
Go to that article and it might save your life. Remember if you see a flash duck and cover, cover to prevent thermal burns. count 120 seconds to give time for the blast wave to pass over then look for shelter in the basement of a building that is not burning. Of course if you are directly under the bomb duck and cover won't do any good. But most people, most people will not be directly under the bomb. Most people will go to their window and look out to see what the flash was about only to have the glass pulverized and cut them to shreds or blinded for life like the sailor in this article: http://archive.parade.com/2005/0206/0206_rightthewrong.html
So you see duck and cover works for conventional explosions as well. Now go and watch duck and cover on Google video and learn a few things that can save your life in this new age of nuclear terrorism.

Answer 6

Yep. They actually had drills in which children would line up along an interior wall or hide under their desks. This was more in the 50s than in the 60s, but it certainly did happen.

This makes more sense than your question suggests. Nuclear weapons are obviously quite devastating, but modern weapons are such to the point that if you aren't killed in the initial blast, you're likely to survive the whole thing. Fallout is significantly less of an issue than it was for the weapons used in WWII, so if you aren't sicked by the initial blast of radiation, you'll be fine, provided you also survive the shockwave.

This makes even more sense considering the fact that a nuclear weapon of strategic size can affect an area measuring kilometers in diameter, but a significant portion of the area, the parts farther away from the weapon, don't suffer catastrophic damage, and things like hiding under desks would be very effective in avoiding injury.

This, of course, says nothing about the mental impact of holding drills on impressionable young children.

Answer 7

Absolutely! When I was a boy (1950's) we had classroom drills where we got under our desks and covered our heads with our hands in a sort of fetal position. It was ridiculous but some children felt safer thinking there was something they could do. We all saw film of the blast turning a building to dust a mile away but we still rehearsed "duck and cover." Many children were very frightened of nuclear war and I was one. I lost a lot of sleep over fear from the bomb. I'm just glad I never had to try out the plan.

Answer 8

Yes, children were told to "duck and cover". I remember practicing the "duck and cover" technique during elementary school (not in the 60's, but in the 80's). I think it was used more as a way to give people the feeling that they had some sort of control over the situation or a way to be safe. Whether effective or not!

Answer 9

Yep, not only the 60's but the 50's. "Duck and Cover" was an educational film created shortly after the Russians started nuclear testing. You do have to remember though that this was all very new to both Russian and US scientists. Part of it was ignorance, the other part propoganda to prevent people from panicing on a wide scale.

Answer 10

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Answer 11

Duck And Cover Drills