Retrospect 7 - Radiation and Contamination

this is Douglas Edwards bringing you retrospect a film Excursion into past events events which form the patterns by which we live today retrospect is brought to you by the office of civil and defense mobilization in cooperation with your local civil defense office and your local station and now here's your host Douglas Edwards when man first watched a bird trans send the heavens in defiance of gravity he became obsessed by the desire to fly from that day on man's yearning for adventure joined forces with his sents of the whacky and for centuries on end produced One Fiasco after another man was puzzled by his failure after all the bird made it look so easy was it because the bird had wings where man had none Sir James Barry the English dramatist who sent Peter Pan flying into Never Never Land offered this theory on man's failure to conquer the skies the reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith for to have faith is to have wings but if Barry was all for Faith there remain those who were strictly for the birds for these Intrepid Souls time marched ever onward but never upward apparently everyone thought Barry was crazy what man needed was not more faith but more Wings this gentleman proved that seven Wings could make anything fly except an airplane that is if this gentleman didn't have faith he certainly had rugged determination he knew exactly where he was going but he was never able to say that half the fun was getting [Music] there as everyone knows the wri brothers came along in 193 to separate the men from the boys Man At Last had achieved sustained flight but like a cat with a captured Mouse man had to Tinker with his new toy before getting down to Serious Business nowhere did he have more fun with it than in France the French seemed to think that someone had invented a new sport in Paris box planes were introduced presumably to go with box lunches there didn't seem to be any other [Music] reason French jumped at every opportunity to explore the wild blue yonder it seemed everybody was doing it even women tried to get into the Act One Frenchman hit upon the idea of a flying bus flying passengers would come later much later the French Aviator pigu had no end of new ideas up his sleeve in 1913 he conducted an experiment with anchor cables for landing purposes this same principle would be used years later on on aircraft carriers the serious-minded pagu became one of the first men to make a successful parachute jump then just as others were beginning to take this Aviation business seriously Mr pegu had to go and show everyone how to do a loop and the airplane continued to be a great big play thing one Parisian dropped his single motor job on a store roof nobody seems to know why a young French Sergeant flew his plane through the Arch of Triumph and almost got his wings clipped on the serious side Man recorded amazing progress in the field of Aviation over the incredibly short span of 50 years in Commerce military strategy weather forecasting in almost every field the airplane has brought about revolutionary change man looks now beyond the skies to the boundless reaches of outer space he will succeed not not because he is a very stubborn creature but because he has an undiminishing faith in his own destiny so much for the past and now a word about you and your family all of us have heard Deus tell us that there is no hope that no one can expect to survive a nuclear war this is not true however devastating a nuclear war would be we can survive we've never been a nation to throw up our hands in despair when things had to be done today there are things we must do actions we must take as individuals and as communities to assure our survival the office of civil and defense mobilization has proven that simple inexpensive home shelters could save the majority of our people from radioactive fallout in case of nuclear war but what about the other aspects of radiation what would radioactive fallout due to our food and water do we take shelter only to find later that all our food is contaminated and our water impure do we survive in a shelter only to starve later Mr Charles schaer director of radiological defense plans and the office of civil defense mobilization is here to answer these questions for us Mr schaer your office suggests that we all store a two we food and water supply in our shelters now I assume that this food would be safe from Fallout radiation but even with careful rationing that two we Supply has its limits what would we do for food later the purpose of The Fallout Shelter is not to protect food Mr Edwards it is to protect you radiation is not dangerous to Cann Foods food in jars or food in other sealed containers nor is it dangerous to the food in your refrigerators or on your cupboard shelves radiation is only dangerous to living things then most of the food stored in homes and groceries and warehouses would be safe from radiation Mr Sher right but as an additional protective measure we suggest that any jar or can which may have been exposed to Fallout be washed or thoroughly wiped before opening this is to prevent the radioactive particles on the outside from contaminating the contents of the can what about food left exposed such as fresh fruit or vegetables well actually any food exposed May collect radioactive particles and this could be dangerous if eaten however there are many very simple ways of decontaminating food let me show you what I mean here we have a few standard items a banana a head of lettuce and some canned goods first I shall check this banana with the Geer counter to make sure that it has no contamination on it next I shall deliberately contaminate the banana with this radioactive solution ution this is not dangerous but it is mildly radioactive and when I again check it with the Giger counter you can tell by the clicks that it is radioactive now watch I shall carefully peel the banana check it again for contamination find that it is safe and eat it no change in The Taste either I take it very good however the contamination is still on the banana peel therefore I shall put this in the plastic bag to prevent spreading the contamination then you can simply decontaminate the fruit by peeling it is that the process this is true with any thick skinned fruit such as a banana or an orange however there are equally effective methods for decontaminating other foods for instance with a head of cabbage or lettuce one would simply strip off off the outside leaves put them out of Harm's Way and wash the lettuce carefully as any housewife normally does with canned foods one would wash the can or wipe off the outside carefully to prevent getting the contamination on the outside into the food thus as you can see Mr Edwards the radiation picture is not all black in fact if you do the proper things it becomes quite manageable thank you very much Mr schaer there is much we can learn about dealing with radiation but we must learn what to do now to prepare ourselves for survival in the nuclear age one of the few Latin American nations in which Revolution is a thing of the past is our closest neighbor to the South Mexico the last major political upheaval in Mexico started in 1910 and did not finally resolve itself until 1921 when the present democratic system took form the most famous and colorful of Mexico's revolutionists was Francisco panoa the years and the movies have been kind to panoa Hollywood has Preferred to show us a scowling bad man loaded down with gun belts and expensive sombreros behind whose gun belts there beat a heart as big as a medicine ball on Celluloid panova emerged more a romantic than a revolutionist and most Americans gradually forgot that it' once almost caused a war between the United States and Mexico panoa called himself a constitutionalist when fighting broke out between Rebels and government forces in 1910 Mexico had for 34 years lived under the iron rule of poerio Diaz the time was ripe for widespread Revolt but for the next 11 years the various revolutionary groups maintained conflicting goals what began as a revolution would often seem more like a many-sided Civil War in 1914 a movement headed by provincial Governor karanza gained control of the government Poncho via distrustful of karan's motives led a march on Mexico City in October ganza and his generals left the capital temporarily as via's Army occupied all of northern Mexico 5 months of bloody Warfare followed between Mexican federals and via's forces in March of 1915 Poncho via was decisively beaten at the Battle of Salia and retreated into the [Music] hills during this period public outrage was aroused in the United States when a number of innocent American nationalists were wounded and killed by via's [Music] men United States recognition of of the karanza government in October 1915 left Poncho via frustrated in his Ambitions and unable to obtain any more arms from this country 3 months later in retaliation via and his men crossed the border and raided the town of Columbus New Mexico committing mass murder the press and the public demanded that via be captured and punished while diplomatic notes were being exchanged between the coranza government and Washington several Cavalry units were ordered to the Mexican border ganza then issued an order for the defense of Mexican soil at the risk of War President Wilson dispatched fully equipped units of Cavalry and infantry into Mexico on a punitive Expedition one week after Poncho via's raid on United States Territory General John persing and 6,000 American troops crossed the International Bridge and entered Mexico Ping's troops remained in Mexico for 10 months during which time the 24th Infantry Division occupied the city of [Music] harez the punitive Expedition never did fight via's Army it was nowhere to be found via was shrew enough to avoid a showdown with a force which had him greatly outnumbered but if he never clashed with American troops he did cause Mexican American relations to reach an alltime low not until long after American troops were withdrawn would normal relations exist once again between the two nations in 1920 via surrendered his army to a new government of agrarian reform he was assassinated in 1923 before we close today a further reminder that we can defeat the Potential Threat of radioactive fallout after a nuclear attack but we must take the ne necessary steps now to protect our homes and our families for information on how you can survive a nuclear attack contact your local civil defense office or write to ocdm Battle Creek Michigan be sure to be with me next time we bring you retrospect till then this is Douglas Edwards saying goodbye for now retrospect starring Douglas Edward words was brought to you by the office of civil and defense mobilization in cooperation with your local civil defense office and your local station survival in the nuclear age is a personal responsibility touching every American Family make sure you take part learn the facts about civil defense preparedness start your home preparedness program today the prepared family builds a prepared Nation civil defense is an American tradition [Music]