That Old Nuclear Threat is Not Completely Gone
©2010 Daniel A. Brown
Lately, I’ve been thinking about nuclear war.
I can thank the recent bomb found in Times Square, which could easily have been nuclear, for planting such a topic in my mind. True, it’s not the jolliest of subjects to contemplate but if you need a clue as to why the Baby Boomers are so neurotic, it’s worth noting that they were the first generation in history to grow up under the threat of total annihilation. I’ve personally considered it a minor miracle that there was never a thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union during those long decades when such a horror was not only likely, but considered inevitable. Not that we didn’t come close, especially during the Cuban Missile crisis of October 1962. We should all thank our lucky stars that we had the cool-thinking John F. Kennedy at the helm, deflecting the hawks who wanted us to invade Cuba. Had the likes of Sarah Palin or Dick Cheney been president at that juncture, it’s a good bet that the United States would still be a radioactive wasteland.
The concept that a full-scale nuclear exchange between the US and the USSR would result in what eventually became known by its apt acronym MAD, or “Mutually Assured Destruction”, was still far from being accepted during the early and middle decades of the Cold War. Herman Kahn, a RAND Corporation military strategist conjectured that a nuclear war would probably be “an unpleasant experience” but that things would eventually get back to normal. The Post Office would resume delivering the mail and we’d all go back to viewing our favorite programs on television. Kahn further suggested that the government should offer homeowner's insurance against nuclear bomb damage.
That such a monster in human clothing could be in a position of power and influence tells you just how closely we dodged the most lethal of bullets. Fortunately, he was countered by more sane analysts who predicted that a nuclear conflagration would instead reduce humanity to “medieval levels”.
The popular media has, at times, tried to portray atomic warfare in ways that transmit its full terror while still retaining some form of entertainment value. The most well-known is ABC’s “The Day After” released in 1983. Despite some dramatic and poignant scenes, it remains a sterile and forgettable offering. Not so, Peter Watkins’ “The War Game”, a World War III “documentary” made in Great Britain in 1965 which was deemed so horrifying that the BBC banned it from its airwaves for a full twenty years. Filmed in black and white with a flat-voiced narrator, the viewer is spared nothing. When I first saw it in college, I fled the theater in panic.
Two contemporary books explored the evils of nuclear warfare with equal realism. “Alas, Babylon”, written by Pat Frank in 1959, focuses on a small town in central Florida surviving amid a nation that has been completely destroyed by World War III. It is not until the final page of the tale that the ragged survivors learn that the United States has, in fact, won the war, but note that their “victory” is rendered meaningless by their current unendurable reality. Such a view was considered heretical during the Eisenhower era which might explain why the book was never a runaway best seller.
“Warday” by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka enjoyed a better fate, receiving accolades from such distinguished personages as Senators Ted Kennedy and Mark Hatfield as well as our own Randy Kehler. “Warday” also plays as a documentary as the two authors travel across the United States five years after a “limited” nuclear attack by the Soviets that lasts a mere thirty minutes. The eventual result of that half hour is 60,000,000 American dead from blast, radiation sickness, famine and the effects of the annual flu on a severely weakened population. Although our nation survives, it is a radically transformed and impoverished society.
But since the Cold War ended, the threat of a worldwide nuclear holocaust has receded. Unfortunately, the planet has been rendered more vulnerable to the threat of nuclear terrorism as well as secondary nations arming themselves with the same weaponry. Be assured that even a minor nuclear conflict between Israel and Iran, two volatile nations bordering the Middle East oil fields, would result in reducing the American, if not the global economy, to “medieval levels” not to mention the horrific loss of life.
This further emphasizes that there is no longer any distinction between civilian and combatant in nuclear warfare. The human race, therefore, would do well by heeding the words of a fictional character in “Alas, Babylon”, a retired admiral, who makes the following observation about the old Cold War rivals. “Once both sides had the maximum capacity in hydrogen weapons and the means of delivering them, there was no sane alternative to peace.”
Fortunately, we Americans and our Russian adversaries eventually stumbled to this realization. Let’s pray that the newer nuclear-tipped powers follow suit as well.
I can thank the recent bomb found in Times Square, which could easily have been nuclear, for planting such a topic in my mind. True, it’s not the jolliest of subjects to contemplate but if you need a clue as to why the Baby Boomers are so neurotic, it’s worth noting that they were the first generation in history to grow up under the threat of total annihilation. I’ve personally considered it a minor miracle that there was never a thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union during those long decades when such a horror was not only likely, but considered inevitable. Not that we didn’t come close, especially during the Cuban Missile crisis of October 1962. We should all thank our lucky stars that we had the cool-thinking John F. Kennedy at the helm, deflecting the hawks who wanted us to invade Cuba. Had the likes of Sarah Palin or Dick Cheney been president at that juncture, it’s a good bet that the United States would still be a radioactive wasteland.
The concept that a full-scale nuclear exchange between the US and the USSR would result in what eventually became known by its apt acronym MAD, or “Mutually Assured Destruction”, was still far from being accepted during the early and middle decades of the Cold War. Herman Kahn, a RAND Corporation military strategist conjectured that a nuclear war would probably be “an unpleasant experience” but that things would eventually get back to normal. The Post Office would resume delivering the mail and we’d all go back to viewing our favorite programs on television. Kahn further suggested that the government should offer homeowner's insurance against nuclear bomb damage.
That such a monster in human clothing could be in a position of power and influence tells you just how closely we dodged the most lethal of bullets. Fortunately, he was countered by more sane analysts who predicted that a nuclear conflagration would instead reduce humanity to “medieval levels”.
The popular media has, at times, tried to portray atomic warfare in ways that transmit its full terror while still retaining some form of entertainment value. The most well-known is ABC’s “The Day After” released in 1983. Despite some dramatic and poignant scenes, it remains a sterile and forgettable offering. Not so, Peter Watkins’ “The War Game”, a World War III “documentary” made in Great Britain in 1965 which was deemed so horrifying that the BBC banned it from its airwaves for a full twenty years. Filmed in black and white with a flat-voiced narrator, the viewer is spared nothing. When I first saw it in college, I fled the theater in panic.
Two contemporary books explored the evils of nuclear warfare with equal realism. “Alas, Babylon”, written by Pat Frank in 1959, focuses on a small town in central Florida surviving amid a nation that has been completely destroyed by World War III. It is not until the final page of the tale that the ragged survivors learn that the United States has, in fact, won the war, but note that their “victory” is rendered meaningless by their current unendurable reality. Such a view was considered heretical during the Eisenhower era which might explain why the book was never a runaway best seller.
“Warday” by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka enjoyed a better fate, receiving accolades from such distinguished personages as Senators Ted Kennedy and Mark Hatfield as well as our own Randy Kehler. “Warday” also plays as a documentary as the two authors travel across the United States five years after a “limited” nuclear attack by the Soviets that lasts a mere thirty minutes. The eventual result of that half hour is 60,000,000 American dead from blast, radiation sickness, famine and the effects of the annual flu on a severely weakened population. Although our nation survives, it is a radically transformed and impoverished society.
But since the Cold War ended, the threat of a worldwide nuclear holocaust has receded. Unfortunately, the planet has been rendered more vulnerable to the threat of nuclear terrorism as well as secondary nations arming themselves with the same weaponry. Be assured that even a minor nuclear conflict between Israel and Iran, two volatile nations bordering the Middle East oil fields, would result in reducing the American, if not the global economy, to “medieval levels” not to mention the horrific loss of life.
This further emphasizes that there is no longer any distinction between civilian and combatant in nuclear warfare. The human race, therefore, would do well by heeding the words of a fictional character in “Alas, Babylon”, a retired admiral, who makes the following observation about the old Cold War rivals. “Once both sides had the maximum capacity in hydrogen weapons and the means of delivering them, there was no sane alternative to peace.”
Fortunately, we Americans and our Russian adversaries eventually stumbled to this realization. Let’s pray that the newer nuclear-tipped powers follow suit as well.
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