Editing The Atomic Cafe (section)

== Historical context ==
''The Atomic Cafe'', referred to as a "compilation [[cinema verite|verite]]" with no "voice of God narration" or any recently shot footage, was released at the height of nostalgia and cynicism in America. By 1982, Americans lost much of their faith in their government following the [[Vietnam War]] and the [[Watergate scandal]] the previous decade,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.popmatters.com/68867-atomic-cafe-2496077449.html|title=Atomic Cafe|website=Popmatters.com|date=15 January 2009|access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref> alongside the seemingly never-ending [[arms race]] with the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mclane |first=Betsy |date=1983 |title=Domestic Theatrical & Semi-Theatrical Distribution and Exhibition of American Independent Feature Films a Survey in 1983 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20686938 |journal=Journal of the University Film and Video Association |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=17–24 |jstor=20686938 }}</ref> ''The Atomic Cafe'' reflects and reinforces this idea as it exposes how the atomic bomb's dangers were downplayed and how the government used films to shape public opinion. Loader, who grew up in 50s-60s [[Fort Worth, Texas]] living across the street to E.O. "Soapy" Gillam, better known as the "bomb shelter king of North Texas", while also remembering one of her friends used her family's bunker as a clubhouse/secret party spot, felt compelled to revisiting the era that formed her childhood.<ref>[https://www.texasobserver.org/atomic-cafe-documentary-sxsw-cold-war-nuclear/ In 'The Atomic Cafe', U.S. Cold War Propaganda Comes Out of the Bunker for the Trump Era - The Texas Observer]</ref>

''The Atomic Cafe'' was also released during the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]]'s [[civil defense]] revival.<ref>[http://www.conelrad.com/jayne_loader.html ''Conelrad: All Things Atomic'']. ''The Atomic Cafe'', Jayne Loader Interview.  Last accessed: November 26, 2012.</ref> Barry Posen and Stephen Van Evera explain this revival in their article "Defense Policy and the Reagan Administration: Departure from Containment" published in ''International Security''. They argue that in 1981–82 the Reagan administration was moving from an essentially defensive grand strategy of containment to a more offensive strategy.  Due to the greater demands of its more offensive strategy "the Reagan Administration ... proposed the biggest military buildup since the [[Korean War]]."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Posen |first1=Barry R. |last2=Van Evera |first2=Stephen |date=1983 |title=Defense Policy and the Reagan Administration: Departure from Containment |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2538484 |journal=International Security |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=3–45 |doi=10.2307/2538484|jstor=2538484 }}</ref> Of key relevance to ''The Atomic Cafe'', the Reagan move toward offense included the adoption of a more aggressive nuclear strategy that required a large U.S. nuclear buildup.  Containment only required that U.S. strategic nuclear forces be capable of one mission: inflicting unacceptable damage on the Soviet Union even after absorbing an all-out Soviet surprise attack. To this "assured destruction" mission the Reagan administration added a second "counterforce" mission, which required the capacity to launch a nuclear first strike against Soviet strategic nuclear forces that would leave the Soviets unable to inflict unacceptable damage on the U.S. in retaliation. The U.S. had always invested in counterforce but the Reagan administration put even greater emphasis on it.  The counterforce mission was far more demanding than the assured destruction mission, and required a vast expansion of U.S. nuclear forces to fulfill. Civil defense was a component of a counterforce strategy, as it reduced Soviet retaliatory capacity, hence civil defense was a candidate for more spending under Reagan's counterforce nuclear strategy.  Posen and Van Evera argue that this counterforce strategy was a warrant for an open-ended U.S. nuclear buildup.

Bob Mielke, in "Rhetoric and Ideology in the Nuclear Test Documentary" (''Film Quarterly'') discusses the release of ''The Atomic Cafe'':  "This satire feature was released at the height of the nuclear freeze movement (which was in turn responding to the Reagan administration's surreal handling of the arms race.)"<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/fq.2005.58.3.28?uid=3739256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101424275191 | jstor=10.1525/fq.2005.58.3.28 | doi=10.1525/fq.2005.58.3.28 | title=Rhetoric and Ideology in the Nuclear Test Documentary | date=2005 | last1=Mielke | first1=Bob | journal=Film Quarterly | volume=58 | issue=3 | pages=28–37 }}</ref>

In "Atomic Café" (''Film Quarterly''), Fred Glass points out that the technical and cultural background needed to create the film was not available in 1955. The film's themes, critical of government propaganda and the nuclear arms race, would have been seen as unpatriotic during the McCarthy era. And getting the necessary permits and funding to make Atomic Café can be quite difficult.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glass |first=Fred |date=Spring 1983 |title=ATOMIC CAFE |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/853155453 |journal=Film Quarterly |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=51–54|doi=10.2307/3697350 |jstor=3697350 |id={{ProQuest|853155453}} }}</ref>

Patricia Aufderheide, in ''Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction'' touches on the significance of ''The Atomic Cafe'' as a window into the past of government propaganda and disinformation during the years following the advent of the atomic bomb. <blockquote>Propaganda, also known as disinformation, public diplomacy, and strategic communication, continues to be an important tool for governments. But stand-alone documentary is no longer an important part of public relations campaigns aimed at the general public.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction|last=Aufderheide|first=Patricia|date=November 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press | edition=7th |isbn=978-0195182705}}</ref></blockquote>

It has also been known as a [[postmodernist film]].<ref>[https://www.documentary.org/feature/playback-connie-fields-life-and-times-rosie-riveter Connie Field's 'The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter'|International Documentary Association]</ref><ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/rick-prelinger-we-have-always-recycled Rick Prelinger: We have always recycled|BFI]</ref>