[graeme]

People were extremely aware of the Cuban Missile Crisis. My father mentioned at school they were doing active under desk drills in the event it escalated to nuclear war.

It is easy to underrate the past. The 20th century had mass communication, high literacy and an active and well funded press corps with committed newspaper readers and news watchers.

[mvkel]

There's no technical way people could be as informed as they are today. Newspapers are yesterday's news, tomorrow.

[hoytschermerhrn]

OP is specifically talking about seeing unfiltered, on-the-ground footage of what’s happening as it’s happening, directly by the people being impacted. This is very different than prior conflicts which have been ostensibly filtered for various reasons.