The political and cultural mood of nuclear anxiety in the period between the first uses of nuclear weapons in 1945, through the amendment’s ratification in 1967, is the topic of Chapter 3: The Nuclear Paradox: Power, Fallibility, and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. The omnipresent and growing fear of nuclear Armageddon reached a peak in the early 1960s in a series of confrontations between the two superpowers. Fear of nuclear attack contributed to a strong desire for stability at the top echelon of government at all times, leading to Continuity of Government plans. The anxieties about continuity of government were a symptom of the paradox of presidential power being linked to an era of nuclear power. Eisenhower’s illnesses and John F. Kennedy’s sudden death pointed to the contradiction that the president—who wielded the almost superhuman power to potentially bring an end to mankind—was human and, therefore, mortal. In discussing how representations of nuclear anxiety run through, and often intersect in, pop culture and politics, this chapter provides a fuller account of why the amendment developed at this time.