The Anti-Nuclear Animated Short That Traumatized A Generation

In the 50s and 60s fear of a nuclear war kept kids and their parents up at night, made school a lesson in disaster preparedness as kids were repeatedly drilled on what to do in case of nuclear war.

In 1952 the first hydrogen bomb was successfully detonated, showing the world that Nagasaki was on the low end of the nuclear devastation spectrum, and a new wave of fear swept through the world.

(YouTube Link)

Responding the best way they knew how artists Peter and Joan Foldes created an animated short entitled A Short Vision, which premiered on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.

Sullivan felt this short had a very important message, so he shared it with his viewing audience after preparing them for the horror with this monologue:

“Just last week you read about the H-bomb being dropped. Now two great English writers, two very imaginative writers—I’m gonna tell you if you have youngsters in the living room tell them not to be alarmed at this ‘cause it’s a fantasy, the whole thing is animated—but two English writers, Joan and Peter Foldes, wrote a thing which they called A Short Vision in which they wondered what might happen to the animal population of the world if an H-bomb were dropped. It’s produced by George K. Arthur and I’d like you to see it. It is grim, but I think we can all stand it to realize that in war there is no winner.”

-Via Dangerous Minds