Background of Civil Defense and Current Damage Limiting Studies
Background of Civil Defense and Current Damage Limiting Studies

Author: Joseph Romm

Publisher:

Published: 1966

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13:

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A brief history of civil defense administration precedes analysis of nuclear attack conditions and the influence of protective measures. Damage limitation procedure is explained in terms of--(1) blast effects, (2) radiation doses, (3) geographical fallout distribution patterns, and (4) national shelter needs. Major concept emphasis relates to--(1) lifesaving potential of improved strategic defense programs, (2) functional protection factor determination for shelters, and (3) geographic and demographic characteristics of hypothetical attack situations. Extensive substantive data and diagrams are included.

Armageddon Insurance
Armageddon Insurance

Author: Edward M. Geist

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2019-10-30

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 1469645262

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The dangerous, decades-long arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War begged a fundamental question: how did these superpowers actually plan to survive a nuclear strike? In Armageddon Insurance, the first historical account of Soviet civil defense and a pioneering reappraisal of its American counterpart, Edward M. Geist compares how the two superpowers tried, and mostly failed, to reinforce their societies to withstand the ultimate catastrophe. Drawing on previously unexamined documents from archives in America, Russia, and Ukraine, Geist places these civil defense programs in their political and cultural contexts, demonstrating how each country's efforts reflected its cultural preoccupations and blind spots and revealing how American and Soviet civil defense related to profound issues of nuclear strategy and national values. This work challenges prevailing historical assumptions and unearths the ways Moscow and Washington developed nuclear weapons policies based not on rational strategic or technical considerations but in power struggles between different institutions pursuing their own narrow self-interests.