The history of the Cold War Two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, were in a nuclear arms face-off in a deadly game of brinkmanship. In 1960-61, US-Soviet relations were at their flashpoint, and global nuclear war seemed near. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis brought our world to the very brink of World War III. It would have been the war to end all wars, and quite possibly the end of the world as well.

In 1980, as a result of the review, some immediate measures were introduced. One important measure was to shorten the expected warning period from 3-4 weeks to seven days. Another was the idea that there may be a conventional non-nuclear war which should be planned for. Before, all plans had been based on the idea that the war would produce an immediate and all-out nuclear strike. In more specific terms the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was to be modernised, improvements were to be made to the Wartime Broadcasting Service (WTBS) and the `Green Goddess’ fire engines were overhauled. More importantly, more money was made available to local authorities for their civil defence measures and to provide for the Emergency Planning Officers to oversee them. It also appears that an unannounced decision was made to refurbish the SRHQs

By 1960-61, Canadians and Americans had it on the best government authority that nuclear war was inevitable. We were urged to protect ourselves from radioactive fallout in family shelters equipped with survival kits and stores of food and water. In Calgary, Bill and Lorna Purdy, a registered nurse, prepared themselves and their four young children – with a fifth child on the way – to survive nuclear war in their basement shelter. Following government instructions, Lorna packed her husband’s briefcase with a first aid notebook and kit; civil defence pamphlets including “If War Should Come”; “Your Basement Fallout Shelter”; and “Survival in Likely Target Areas”; hatchet, can opener, flashlight, candles and matches; lipstick, deodorant, soap, and shaving gear; toothbrushes and vitamins; diapers, baby powder and diaper rash ointment for the child Lorna was expecting; Kleenex and sanitary napkins; spare socks and cigarettes. Most chilling of all are four identification toe tags, one for each of the Purdy children, aged four, five, six, and seven.