Civil Defense Administration

The Civil Defense Administration was a government agency of the United States of America, tasked with disseminating information about nuclear war survival and the creation and distribution of propaganda among the United States citizens.

Background
As its name suggests, it was meant to coordinate and oversee civil defense preparations within the United States, at State, Commonwealth & Federal levels. This included the national civil Emergency Alert System, which was in turn tied into the Emergency Alert Systems of the various Commonwealths, including that of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The National Catastrophe Relief Auxiliary was a subordinate agency.

One of the agency's mascots was the kid-friendly Bert the Turtle who was featured on one of the posters practicing "Duck and Cover!" This agency advocated the use of air raid shelters during a nuclear strike. It was also responsible for, what was by the 2050s a badly under-resourced, network of civil defense shelters and emergency supply caches throughout the country. The agency also had a (strictly nominal) oversight role for the 'Societal Preservation Program' i.e. Project Safehouse.

A poster created for this agency, that of a man holding a shovel asking, "Where will YOU be when the Holocaust comes?" is copied onto a slide for the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide.

In interests of national security, the administration also asked banks to keep an eye out for the use of foreign currencies, such as the Chinese Yuan, as well as to trigger a silent alarm and to delay customers using such currencies as long as possible without arousing suspicion.

Appearances
The Civil Defense Administration is mentioned in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4 and the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide.

Behind the scenes

 * The Civil Defense Administration is the Fallout universe's counterpart to the real-life Federal Civil Defense Administration, Federal Civil Defense Authority and Office of Civil Defense, American government agencies that distributed information about the threat of communist attacks and coordinated civil defense program activities such as fallout shelters between 1951 and 1979.
 * Some posters of the CDA are directly inspired by real propaganda posters of the Red Army, including the 1920 Dmitrii Moor "Have you volunteered?" rendition which mirrors the CDA poster seen in-game.