In the movie Dr. Strangelove, the bomber aircrew are given survival kits containing a range of supplies both reasonable and comical. What sort of things would Cold War era American soldiers really be issued in these kits? If they got them at all.

by IcyLemonZ

As part of the checklist for preparing to drop the bomb, Maj Kong reads out the contents of the aircrew members survival kit.

Maj Kong: "Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find: one .45 caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days concentrated emergency raisons[sic]; one drug issue containing: antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair a nylon stockings. Shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

Things such as the bible, phrase book and the gold seem to toe the line between reasonable and comic. Even prophylactics (specifically condoms) are often cited as a good means of keeping things dry from rain.

What sort of things would a member of the US armed forces have been issued in such a survival kit intended for use after a nuclear exchange during the Cold War? Would there have been significant differences between military branches (Army, Navy, Air Force)?

SamsonFox

To get an idea, I used the list of things that were found on Francis Powers - a US U-2 pilot that was shot down over USSR while on a spy mission:

  • A poison needle containing "poison from curare group"
  • A gun with a silencer
  • A sort of a jackknife
  • An inflatable rubber boat
  • A set of maps of European part of Soviet Union and nearby countries
  • A fire starting kit
  • A signalling kit
  • An electric torch
  • A number of compasses
  • A saw
  • Some fishing gear
  • 7500 roubles in Soviet money (that would be about 1000 dollars at the time)
  • 6 golden rings
  • 2 golden watches
  • 48 golden coins
  • a sort of dictionary that would contain simple phrases in 13 languages

Note that Soviets downplayed some of the survival gear and played up the gun, the poison pin, and, particularly, the gold coins and roubles - since they showed the "treacherous nature" of capitalist US spies who expected to bribe their way out of all the trouble. Also note that in 1961 there was a monetary reform in USSR, so the 7500 roubles in 1960 money would be 750 in 1964 money.

Per Powers' testimony, the gold and money were given out separately prior to the flight by his direct superior.

Sources:

Power's case in Soviet court: https://www.oldgazette.ru/lib/pauers/index.html

Khruschev's report on the incident: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/05/08/90661540.html?pageNumber=24

More or less, the Powers case was known prior to 1964 movie, so the set contents may be referring back to the contents of the Powers survival kit.