On November 7, 1957, H. Rowan Gaither’s report, “Deterrence & Survival in the Nuclear Age” was issued. It called for $30 billion to build bomb shelters to protect American citizens in the event of nuclear war. In the years that followed, articles, such as those published in the New England Journal of Medicine (5/31/1962) called out the medical consequences of thermonuclear war, including “Some Psychiatric and Social Aspects of the Defense-Shelter Program” by P. Herbert Leiderman and Jack H. Mendelson. They bluntly summarized the situation: “It should be apparent that the psychologic and social problems raised in planning a defense-shelter program are of a magnitude and complexity that make it advisable to concentrate massive efforts on eliminating the need for such a program.” Data about the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki informed the discussion. Published in 1946, this “Medical report of the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb” (volume 6) illustrates population and casualties, as well as building and shielding studies. Also check out Elena Carter’s “Beds not bombs: Highlights from the Medact collection.
~This post was originally on our Facebook page and is courtesy Emily R. Novak Gustainis.