In the harrowing 38 minutes after an incoming-missile warning was mistakenly sent via Hawaii's emergency alert system on Saturday, those who received the message scrambled to follow its instructions to seek shelter. The experience shocked a state and a nation whose citizens have often felt that the fear of a direct attack, especially a nuclear one, is a thing of the past. The days of fallout shelters and duck-and-cover drills have seemed over — though though perhaps less so these days, as the threat of conflict with North Korea looms, than at other times in the recent past.

In 1954, LIFE Magazine captured that fear at its height, sending photographer John Dominis and Dallas correspondent Scot Leavitt to profile the Beardens of Houston. ...

However, Leavitt's notes from that March day, which he sent to the magazine's editors, were preserved in the archives. They now offer insight into the psychology of a nation under the shadow of nuclear doom.