KCQ Investigates Kansas City's 1954 Nuclear Attack Drill

Kansas City MO

30 March, 2022

2:54 PM

Description

Press release from the Kansas City Public Library: March 25, 2022 Following a recent viewing of "The Day After," the 1983 film depicting the destruction of Kansas City by nuclear attack, a reader wondered if the city was really considered a Soviet target during the Cold War years. In the movie, survivors of the attach witness the breakdown of society in rural Kansas and Missouri. The individual put the question to What's Your KCQ?, a collaboration between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star, also asking if the city did anything to address the threat. Indeed, as a major city with more than 40,000 manufacturing jobs, Kansas City was in the Soviets' crosshairs. A 1955 federal report listed it as one of 70 critical areas in the continental United States extremely likely to be targeted in the event of war. All capital cities not meeting this benchmark were considered probable targets. In the decades to come, the numerous intercontinental ballistic missile silos in the surrounding area only increased the likelihood of Kansas City being at risk if nuclear war erupted. The Soviet Union became an atomic power in 1949 and tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1953. To "protect life and property in the United States in case of enemy assault," President Harry Truman established the Federal Civil Defense Administration in 1950. In addition to producing educational films like "Duck and Cover," the new department's efforts filtered down to citizens through local civil defense offices. In Kansas City, retired Army Brig. Gen. Charles O. Thrasher was placed in charge of getting the populace ready. Thrasher, a veteran of both world wars, began speaking to civic organizations and other groups to communicate the need for urgent preparation for a Soviet attack. He warned that "interest is likely to wane unless the possibility of disaster is pointed at continuously." In addition to apathy, Thrasher was concerned about local architecture, infrastructure, and even geology. He concluded that there simply weren't enough three-story basements in the city to provide shelter in the event of an attack and unlike other metropolitan areas, Kansas City lacked underground structures like miles of subway tunnels in which citizens could hide. He also pointed out that the deposit of bedrock beneath the city would reflect and exacerbate an atomic blast's shockwave and cause numerous buildings to collapse. Duck and cover didn't seem like such a great plan. On March 17, 1953, the threat of nuclear war was brought into American homes in a new way when a test of an atomic bomb was nationally televised for the first time. Civil defense planning accelerated. By 1954, Thrasher had outlined an emergency plan to evacuate the downtown area's daytime residents to safety outside the city. His team worked with medical professionals, civil defense block captains, specially trained radiation crews, and even amateur radio operators to learn how they could help in the event of an attack. Civil defense offices in other cities suggested elaborate survival kits including things like fishing gear and dehydrated food. So-called civil defense picnics were held so families could practice preparing meals in the field. Thrasher's office was more modest, recommending only enough supplies to help families survive for 48 hours following an attack — just enough time for federal forces to respond. Pared-down kits were to include one bar of soap, antiseptic solution, a triangular bandage, a flashlight with batteries, a pocketknife, one tea towel, one bath towel, and enough hard chocolate to last a family for two days. More than 130,000 copies of an evacuation map of the city were printed. In addition to instructions, they displayed four blast zones with damage and survivability estimates radiating outward from 16th and McGee streets in the heart of downtown. Planners hoped that one-way evacuation routes could get downtown residents and workers about 15 miles away in 45 minutes. Their map suggested that 20 miles from ground zero was "reasonably safe." The maps were widely distributed in schools, hospitals, city offices, and fire and police stations in preparation for Operation Scamper, an area-wide nuclear attack drill held November 7, 1954. At 1:30 p.m., three-minute-long siren blasts announced the beginning of the drill. Some 2,000 civil defense workers and first responders sprang into action. Police officers handed out information about the drill to Sunday drivers along evacuation routes and Civilian Air Patrol planes dropped leaflets from the sky. Hospitals in Shawnee, Olathe, and Stanley, Kansas, provided care to Boy and Girl Scouts posing as disaster victims. Command centers in in suburban areas coordinated with Thrasher's civil defense office inside police radio headquarters at 27th Street and Van Brunt Boulevard. This press release was produced by the Kansas City Public Library. The views expressed here are the author's own.