Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 2017 Surviving Fallout in Appalachia: An Examination of Class Differences within Civil Defense Preparation in West Virginia During the Early Years of the Cold War Tristan Miranda Williams allen172@marshall.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.edu/etd Part of the Appalachian Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Tristan Miranda, "Surviving Fallout in Appalachia: An Examination of Class Differences within Civil Defense Preparation in West Virginia During the Early Years of the Cold War" (2017). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones.edu/etd/1113 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact zhangj@marshall.edu, beachgr@marshall.
SURVIVING FALLOUT IN APPALACHIA: AN EXAMINATION OF CLASS DIFFERENCES WITHIN CIVIL DEFENSE PREPARATION IN WEST VIRGINIA DURING THE EARLY YEARS OF THE COLD WAR A thesis submitted to The Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Tristan Miranda Williams Approved by Dr. Greta Rensenbrink, Committee Chairperson Dr. Kat Williams Mr. Nat DeBruin Marshall University August 2017 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I honestly cannot fathom where to begin with thanks.
I want to thank the amazing history teachers and professors that I have had up until this point. I struggled for many years about whether or not to pursue my education in history beyond my undergraduate degree. Thankfully I made the decision to continue at Marshall and was introduced to the amazing faculty in the history department. I want to thank Dr.
Rensenbrink for her patience at the times I felt as though I was clueless and out of my depth, not to mention her excellent editing skills. Her support and enthusiasm through the research, writing, and beyond was more than I could have hoped for. Very nearly each of the faculty members in the history department have played some role throughout the process of this project. I also want to thank my supervisors at Marshall University’s H.
Program, who would encourage me and be a shoulder to cry on when I needed it most. As well, I want to thank my students who have been a reminder as well for why I want to be in a classroom. Thanks is also due to the amazing cohort I was able to be a part of during my time in the graduate program. You all pushed me to be a better historian and provided me with coffee, skittles, and a support when I needed it.
You each played an important role in this process and I cannot thank you enough for becoming some of the best friends I have ever had. Special thanks need to be given to Katie though, without her willingness to drive me to the Archives in Charleston, help watch my youngest during meetings with Dr. Rensenbrink, and generally being an awesome friend, it is hard telling where this project would have ended up. Above all, thanks must be given to my family.
To my parents for helping along the way. And especially to my husband Derek for his patience when I needed it most, for picking up where I was lacking during this project as a partner and parent. I couldn’t have done this without you, we are off to bigger and better things. And thank you to my children, Leo and Penelope, who have been the driving force behind my success.
Mommy did it! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------v Introduction----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 Chapter 1: How to Survive the Apocalypse: The Necessity of Civil Defense-----------------------14 Chapter 2: Preventing Red Dawn Over Appalachia: Civil Defense in West Virginia--------------35 Chapter 3: Red Alert!: Citizens React to Nuclear Annihilation---------------------------------------59 Conclusion----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------78 Bibliography--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------81 Appendix A: Letter From the Institutional Research Board--------------------------------------------87 Appendix B: Curriculum Vitae---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 88 iv ABSTRACT Civil defense and West Virginia are not likely to be considered in tandem. What would make West Virginia significant during the Cold War? West Virginia is a state that has been synonymous with family feuds, hillbillies, moonshine, and coal mining. Few have considered West Virginia beyond these stereotypes and scant work has been done beyond that. The impact of the Cold War has been looked at through multiple angles but few have looked at the significant role West Virginia played during this time.
Possibly, few have even considered that it played a role at all. Through examination of primary sources and oral histories of the period, a fuller picture can be painted about what exactly was happening in West Virginia during the early years of the Cold War. It is no secret that the state was impoverished with a significantly poorer economy than other sates but how did this impact civilians’ nuclear war fears? Civilians were presented with civil defense films that portrayed middle class families who could store food or construct their own fallout shelters; how did this impact those who could not afford to do the same? What efforts were taken to help citizens in West Virginia protect themselves and did it help at all? While atomic attacks never came, the threat was ever lingering for all citizens, with the difference between the two being how the working class and middle class responded. v INTRODUCTION There have been a few questions that I have been asked repeatedly during this project: why civil defense, and above all, why civil defense in Appalachia? To keep it simple, I chose Appalachia because this is my home.
I grew up in Southern Ohio, a stone’s throw away from both West Virginia and Kentucky; it just made sense to write about what I know and I know the heart of Appalachia. Civil defense though, that was a different beast entirely. The idea to examine the civil defense aspect struck me while I was playing a wholly historically inaccurate video game, Fallout 4. The game is centered in the not too distant future, when America had the upper hand economically and politically, as well as a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear technology reigned supreme; cars and household appliances all ran on nuclear power. 1 These portrayals are not a far cry from the hope the American public had with the dawn of the Atomic Age.2 Within the world of Fallout, a series of nuclear bombs fell and citizens of the game scattered into vaults or what would be the equivalent to fallout shelters in our world. Within the ruins of post apocalyptic Boston in Fallout 4 I found the inspiration for my research. If a bomb had fallen, how would Appalachia have been impacted? What was the plan for Appalachia, or rather specifically West Virginia, if an atomic attack took place? This region has been used for its resources, such as coal and timber, and has been generally poorer that the rest of the nation.
I needed to know, did West Virginian lives matter during an attack in that respect? Even in the fictional world of Fallout, middle class values are evident everywhere, not unlike the civil 1 Fallout 4, directed by Todd Howard (Bethesda Game Studios, November 10, 2015), video game. Paul Boyer, By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, (New 2 York: Pantheon, 1985) 15. 1 defense films from the very era this game seeks to emulate with its imagery, music, style of clothing, and kitschy use of Coca Cola-like advertisements for the game’s Nuka Cola.3 A civil defense film from the era, Modern Minutemen, depicts a middle-class family in a nice home with both a son and a daughter. The mother tucks the youngest into bed while the father and son sit and talk with the grandfather, who recounts his time as a Civil Defense officer during World War II.4 Another film, A New Family in Town, starts off by showing a pristine neighborhood where “everybody knows everybody else.” Children are seen walking to school, husbands on their way to work, and mothers walking their babies in their “prams.”5 These films sought to portray a specific reality of America, one where everything was pristine and capitalism worked for everyone, a certain reality that would be utterly devastating if destroyed by an attack from the communist Soviet Union.
These civil defense films are clearly geared towards a specific group of people: white, middle class, nuclear families. Unfortunately, not everyone in the United States fit within that social construct, especially those living within West Virginia and Appalachia in general. Appalachia saw 32% of its population living in abject poverty.6 The 1950s proved to be a difficult time for families living throughout West Virginia; while the rest of the country saw tremendous job growth, West Virginia experienced significant job loss. The region was marked by poverty and at times substandard living conditions that were in such a state that President 3 Cameron Koch, “The Movies, Literature And Video Games That Influenced The 'Fallout' Series,” Tech Times, November 06, 2015, accessed June 03, 2017, http://www.com/articles/103340/20151106/the-many- influences-of-fallout.
4 Modern Minutemen, film. Produced by the Bell Telephone Company, 1952.org/details/72192CivilDefenseModernMinuteMen 5 A New Family in Town, film. Produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration, 1956.org/details/72742CivilDefenseANewFamilyInTown 6 Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness and West Virginia University for the Appalachian Regional Commission, Appalachia Then and Now: Examining Changes to the Appalachian Region Since 1965 (February 2015). Kennedy and President Lyndon B.
Johnson pushed for legislation and organizations to uplift the region; out of this was born the Appalachian Regional Commission.7 These economic realities were made worse by attitudes from outside West Virginia. Thanks to films such as Wrong Turn, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, and The Mothman Prophecies, West Virginia has been viewed as a state full of superstitious, inbred, drug addicts. In addition, stories of the coal fields from October Sky and Matewan leave others to assume there is nothing more than dead end coal towns in the state. West Virginia has a history that often ends at the coal fields, leaving out so much of its vibrant history.
West Virginia during the Cold War is rarely mentioned in books, being discussed in passing on limited issues like the influx of coal production and President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Policy. Many have assumed that civil defense was not important to the state, or that West Virginia did not matter in the grand scheme of the Cold War, but that simply has not been the case.8 The state had completed its first Emergency Operations Plan in 1950 and was well on its way to preparations for any emergency, nuclear or otherwise.9 Not to mention that President Eisenhower believed the state to be the best location for the federal government’s top secret bunker underneath the Greenbrier Resort. West Virginia’s significant difference from the rest of the United States lies in the fact that the state is primarily poor and working-class folk, thus its people’s stories go largely unheard in the history of civil defense. 7 Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness and West Virginia University for the Appalachian Regional Commission, Appalachia Then and Now: Examining Changes to the Appalachian Region Since 1965 (February 2015).
8 “Junior League Hears Discussion of State, County Defense Plans,” The Charleston Daily Mail, February 09, 1951. “Tridelphia Woman’s Club Studies Civilian Defense,” The Beckley-Post Herald, January 18, 1952. “Civil Defense Activity Grows Hotter,” The Huntington Advertiser, December 19, 1950. 9 West Virginia Department of Civil Defense, State of West Virginia Civil Defense Agency: State Emergency Operations Plan, 1958.
3 The Cold War was a battle of nuclear anxieties between the United States and the Soviet Union. Following World War II, European powers had been so greatly eroded by the devastation of war that the only two world powers that were left were the United States and the Soviet Union.