How Did We Get Here?

Hyperlinks

Government Operations

The cold war forced our leaders to consider many new questions:

• How can we survive a nuclear attack?
• How do we maintain the chain of command?
• How do we communicate with our leadership, the American public, and foreign governments?
• How do we control our nuclear forces before, during, and after a nuclear attack?
• How do we warn our forces and public of an impending attack?

Back to module 1.

Duck and Cover

During the 1960's civil defense messages, in the form of TV commercials, were interjected between children's cartoons. The duck and cover term came from a popular civil defense cartoon depicting a turtle taking precautions during an explosion.

Back to module 1.

The Third Wave

The Third Wave, a book by Alvin and Heidi Toffler.

The Tofflers have partitioned mankind's development into three waves:

• The First Wave - agrarian-based society
• The Second Wave - industrial-based society
• The Third Wave - information-based society

There is no doubt that our society is becoming more dependent on information. The question remains on how great of a change will occur due this evolution.

Back to module 1.