In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Cold War tensions and threat of nuclear war convinced government leaders in the United States that millions of lives could be saved by the construction of home fallout shelters.
The idea took a while to take hold. Even though public drills in the event of a nuclear attack was routine in the 1950s, the Eisenhower administration did not actively promote the construction of home fallout shelters. That changed with the 1957 publication of the Gaither Report, which backed the building of shelters that "permit people to come out of the shelters and survive."
