And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel.
—Ezk. 39:2
7205 Fall-Out Shelter Plans
The Pentagon is developing plans to use abandoned mines as nuclear fall-out shelters and to move millions of Americans into them during crisis. Under Crisis Relocation Planning criteria, there is a potential for sheltering 50 million in level, dry and readily accessible mines.
The Defense Department’s Civil Preparedness Agency says that it has already found space for 6 million in some 2,000 mines around the country. Montana, Utah, and Missouri are cited as states with lots of usable mine shafts. 70% of the population of Missouri would fit into the state’s mines and caves.
But even if everything would work perfectly, 50 to 135 million Americans would still die in an all-out attack.
7206 Biggest Shelter
Cheyenne Mountain nestles the world’s biggest fallout shelter, a $143-million subterranean complex that serves as NORAD command post and the ABM headquarters. The facility rests beneath 1,500 feet of granite that is designed to give NORAD a bombproof, fast-reacting headquarters that could “button-up” from the rest of the world and coordinate a war for 30 days. About 750 men divided into 11 separate steel buildings would call the shots under the direction of the President. Information from the $1-billion radar systems that feed into the mountain’s 14 computers would provide the decisive information on how to run World War III.
—Charles R. Taylor
7207 New York City’s Shelter
An interesting item appeared in the New York Times which might have set some individuals—and local city governments—thinking a bit more seriously about potential dangers from nuclear attack. New York City is planning to update its bomb shelter plans.
Huge computers were readied for a million-dollar project. All sorts of civil defense data were fed into the computers with a view to matching every New Yorker, as well as everyone who works in or visits the city, with a bomb shelter which could protect him for two weeks against radioactive fallout. This program, when (and if) completed, will necessitate twenty-five thousand buildings, all equipped with food, water, medical supplies, and other essentials.
New York’s fallout-shelter plan is designed to put people behind thick walls that will shield them from clouds of radio-active dust and debris which winds might cause to drift over the city in the event of a nuclear explosion in places like Boston, Philadelphia, or Washington.
Of course, in case of a direct hit, bomb shelters would be rather useless. The heat and blast effects of such a score would wipe out the urban populace. But adjacent cities would need shelter protection of some sort. New York, at least, wants to be prepared.
—Herbert Ehrenstein
7208 Not Knowing Bomb Shelters
Up to March of 1977, there were 232,574 fallout shelters ready for use in a nuclear emergency in the United States. They can provide protection for 230 million people. These facilities consist of big downtown buildings, mines, caves and tunnels. Nearly all are stocked with food, water, medical equipment, sanitation kits and devices to measure the level of radioactivity inside and out.
But if sirens signal Americans to head for bomb shelters, most would not know where to turn. Results of a nationwide Gallop Poll survey in January 1977 to the question: “Do you happen to know where the nearest public bomb shelter is?” showed:
YES.… …26%
NO.… …74%
7209 When War Starts
When nuclear war starts, from the practical standpoint, do the following:
(1) Leave all target areas (cities over 200,000 population, armed forces centers, strategic industrial areas and seacoast cities). Take food in cans, bottles and sealed containers to guard against radioactivity from atomic fallout.
(2) Be sure to take drinking water in sealed containers. Don’t drink from open streams.
(3) Stay away from known earthquake faults. If in California, locate east of the San Andreas fault line, for a combination of earthquake and huge tidal waves may wreck the West Coast.
(4) When you get located inland, dig a good fallout shelter. You may have to “button up” for 2–3 weeks to let radioactive dust and debris settle.
(5) And if you have a gun, take it with you, plus a good supply of ammunition. Marauders, anarchists and opportunists will be armed and dangerous, especially true when food becomes scarce.
7210 Post-Attack Food Supply
A broad Stanford Research Institute study looks at post-attack food availability in 5 American cities: San Jose, Albuquerque, New Orleans, Providence and Detroit. The scientists stimulate attacks and then calculate the fate of every food processor in town. … .
There would be some privations in post-attack society. During the first month after nuclear war, survivors may anticipate severe shortages of every commodity except potatoes. Fluid milk will be the scarcest item because of depletion of local herds due to radiation sickness and contamination of the milk produced by surviving cows. The milk will be usable only when put into a processed form, like cheese, and aged to that in which its radioactivity can decay to safe levels. However, meat, eggs, vegetables, and other staples will be available to market. A severe sugar shortage may also hurt the makers of bakery products, sweetened condensed milk, canned fruits, jams and jellies, and confectionary products.
But despite these problems, no one will starve. The potato should ensure that.
7211 Post-Attack Society
Post-attack society will offer certain advantages over pre-attack society. Rent, taxes and consumer debts may all be cancelled. Abandonment of old people, chronic invalids and the insane will lighten the welfare load. Per capita wealth will increase, and it seems likely that everyone will get a promotion. No one will starve because there will be plenty of potato chips to go around.
No matter how bad war is, man is going to survive. Even if a billion people are killed, you still have a couple billion left. Survivors in their productive years—roughly 15 to 63 by present standards—would clearly be the most valuable segment of the post-attack population.
7212 Soviet Survival Rate
T. K. Jones of the Boeing Aerospace Company told a House of Representatives committee:
“From our study, we have concluded that the Soviet defense program can effectively protect the industrial base of the USSR and could facilitate a relatively swift recovery from a nuclear war. By quickly, I mean within two or four years, contrasted with an estimated 12-year recovery period for the U.S.”
Jones also believes that 98% of the Soviet population would survive an all-out retaliatory attack by the U.S., compared to the estimated 40% of Americans who would survive a similar attack by Russia.
From another government report: “In a major nuclear war, the minimum number of deaths would be 140 million in the US and 113 million in the Soviet Union. The economies of each would be almost 3/4 destroyed.”
7213 Too Silly To Deserve World?
And standing on the beach at Melbourne, in Nevil Shute’s novel On the Beach, one of the last remaining inhabitants of earth completely saturated by radiation says, “Maybe we’ve been too silly to deserve a world like this.”
—Christianity Today
7214 Stones And Spears
The late Albert Einstein, whose initial research made the atomic bomb possible, was asked by friends what new weapons might be employed in World War III. He shook his head, and after several minutes of meditation, said, “I don’t know what weapons might be used in World War III. But there isn’t any doubt what weapons will be used in World War IV.”
“And what are those?” a guest asked.
“Stones and Spears,” said Einstein.
7215 College Course’s New Title
To the college students of today, archaeology—with its study of early stone tools, primitive architecture and prehistoric methods of hunting—may appear far removed from our sophisticated technology. Realizing this, Professor James Deetz prefaced his series of lectures at Brown University with a short statement of purpose. “It has been brought to my attention,” he said, “that this stuff may not seem very practical to most of you. Instead, I would like you to look at this as a very practical course—in post- nuclear-attack survival.”
As result, his course had the largest enrollment in the University.
—Selected
See also: Weapons.