Hiroshima to Hippies: Children's Fear of Nuclear Weapons and Its Consequences in the Early Cold War

This paper examines the impact and consequences of the U.S. Government's handling of the threat of nuclear weapons in the Early Cold War. It addresses how it created an all-encompassing fear for children growing up at the time, which changed their perspective and contributed to social movements in the 1960s. FCDA civil defense programs, school curricula, and the weaponization of children to promote democracy and peace internationally were the primary generators of fear. The generation influenced by this childhood fear experienced neurological and psychological changes that led them to form the political activist groups Students for a Democratic Society and the Young Americans for Freedom, and, additionally, many participated in the counterculture movement.