The Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) was organized by Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 president Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

 (1884–1972) on December 1, 1950, and became an official government agency on January 12, 1951. The agency distributed posters, programs, and information about communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

and the threat of communist attacks.

In 1979, President Carter signed Executive Order 12179 merging the successor to the Federal Civil Defense Administration (The Defense Civil Preparedness Agency- DCPA) into today's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In 2003, FEMA was merged into the US Department of Homeland Security.