This series was part of a post-WW2 public service campaign to convince the public to ask the United States government to the sciences of nuclear technology under the control of the United Nations.

This particular period of history was a very fearful time, especially in the wake of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and when society began to associate nuclear warfare with the Biblical Apocalypse, hence the show's title, "The Fifth Horseman".

People believed that the "fifth" horseman was the threat of nuclear annihilation, which, according to popular belief, would be "the end of the world".

The Cold War may be over, but the Fifth Horseman, along with his other four brethren (War, Conquest, Pestilence, and Death), still threatens to gallop over all the Earth, doubtlessly wreaking total existential cataclysm, so this fascinating old time radio series is still every bit as relevant today as it was nearly three quarters of a century ago.