ABSTRACT
Economic growth in the Inland Empire was intimately linked to the rise of the Cold War. From 1948 to the 1990s the citizens of the United States and the Soviet Union lived in a continuous state of mutual distrust and fear of nuclear annihilation. Health became a steadily growing problem for Inland Empire communities. The war-related industries most importantly the ship yards and aircraft manufacturers, which alone added more than three hundred thousand jobs to the local economy between 1940 and 1944 were the economic drivers. The postwar housing boom has its roots in the Federal Housing authority's (FHA) stimulus for residential construction in 1938. After the war the earlier resource-based economies of the Citrus Belt communities including both the packing houses and the subsidiary industries focused on water procurement. In October 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) proclaimed an embargo on oil exports to the United States.
