With the atomic bomb the military, through Civil Defense drills, influenced civilian society as a whole. The wealth and abundance of consumer goods in the US in the 1950s was in itself a soft-power weapon as shown at the American Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. The new military technologies perfected with this expenditure, such as the jet fighter and various rockets, were often copied in the design of consumer goods, such as cars, which proliferated due to the economic wealth of the time and often these consumer goods were made by the same companies that made the newest jet fighters and rockets.

This expenditure and other military related spending such as housing loans through the GI Bill proved vital to the growing economy. Eisenhower’s Massive Retaliation policy required expenditure on new weapons technology which saw defence spending and research and development provide employment through private corporations.

This importance and prestige resulted in the military becoming influential in the 1950s over the shape of the economy, the design of consumer products and even civilian society itself through the atomic bomb. In the Cold War environment that developed between the US and the Soviet Union the US military took on a role of increasing importance and gained prestige in society as a benevolent defender of freedom. The United States finished the Second World War as the wealthiest country in the world and as one of two superpowers.

Walt builds a family fallout shelter