Home > American Home Front WWII > Civil Defense

• Office of Civilian Defense
• Thomas A. Scott
• Helena H. Smith and William Sloane

As war spread through Europe and Asia in 1940 and 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45) issued a call for war mobilization among U.S. industries. He also asked U.S. communities to begin organizing civil defense plans. Civil defense refers to a system of defensive measures designed to protect civilians and their property from enemy attack. In the twenty-first century, after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against American civilians on the U.S. mainland, government officials began to refer to civil defense as "homeland security."