I will prove to you that God exists

[Angrboda]

The GODification of America.

The 1950’s was the height of The Cold War when the omnipresent threat to America was Communism. As the fear of Communism and the Soviet Union grew stronger President Eisenhower felt the need to do something big to help unify and bolster the country. At the strong encouragement of multiple ministers, religious politicians, business leaders, and his influential Evangelist pal Billy Graham, Eisenhower agreed on a bold strategy: Demonize Communism by demonizing a main tenet of Communism: Atheism. The idea was to make the ‘US vs Soviet Union’ a Holy War and draft God as America’s #1 Commie Fighter.
Plaque in in court rooms, government buildings, and public schools

To facilitate that Eisenhower took aggressive executive action. First, he got Congress to add “One nation ‘under GOD’” to The Pledge of Allegiance — a pledge recited daily in every classroom in America. Then he got Congress to replace “E Pluribus Unum” (the US motto since 1782 meaning “Out of many, one”) with IN GOD WE TRUST.

After that he got Congress to approve posting IN GOD WE TRUST in court rooms, government buildings, public schools, on postage stamps, and on all US currency. Even some comic books of the day talked about “Godless Communism”. And New York State created a school prayer specifically designed to “counter the spread of Communism.” As if all that wasn’t enough the Administration teamed up with The Advertising Council, the major religious institutions, and corporate America to create something called the Religion in American Life campaign. With an annual budget of 200K (over $2M in today’s dollars) the campaign goal was to encourage Americans to attend church. It was a well-coordinated, unified effort that in 1956 alone included 5,412 highway billboards, 9,857 bus, train, and railroad station posters, and 59,590 ad cards inside buses, trains, subways, and streetcars. In addition, movie theaters ran PSA’s imploring the public to “Attend the church of your choice next Sunday.” It’s fair to say that during the 50’s nothing in America was marketed better than God, and nothing was demonized more than Communism and atheism.

How (and Why) Americans were Programmed to Hate Atheists.