CONELRAD on the front line of Cold War defense

Abstract

CONELRAD (a contraction of CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation) focused on radio technology for both military and civil defense during the early Cold War years of the 1950s. Conceived as a military defense system into which civil defense needs were incorporated, the civilian aspects were not developed equally. Understood within the context of national security, however, the inequity was the point. CONELRAD contributed to the illusion that a nuclear attack was survivable and helped the Truman and Eisenhower administrations pursue their foreign and military policies without significant public opposition. This article explains the development of CONELRAD and the technical difficulties it faced, and exposes the bureaucratic infighting that was a manifestation of the inherent and mutually exclusive goals of the system.