The thought of nuclear war terrifies me.

[bertha katzenengel]

I wish it terrified everyone. I mean everyone.

[Squatch]

1. Keep your eye on the 25-meter target.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. I attended grade school in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

I remember cowering in the hall at school in nuclear attack position. I am terrified of nuclear war.

And I attended Catholic school....they made certain we were prepared to die immediately. Frankly, it was a form of terrorism. You should have heard the crap we were made to put up with by the nuns during the 1962 Cuban missle crisis. Then I went home and my mother wanted to drink all the booze in the house before we all died.

[Wiley50]

23. I remember "Duck And Cover" too

And Civil Defense teaching how to build and stock
a fallout shelter at the county fair

It Sucks that it's back

[illinoisprogressive]

3. Some have had to live with it since the 50s and it becomes a fact of life.

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. Yeah. It was called the Konelrad system...

I have no idea what that meant, but we lived with it every day.

And then there was the push to build bomb shelters. My parents never did, but there was a time when the basement (which had windows) was filled with canned food and bottled water.

[Individualist]

10. Conelrad was the predecessor of the Emergency Broadcast System

More here: www.oldradio.com/current/bc_conel.htm

[MissB]

4. Maybe we need an updated "The Day After".

[bertha katzenengel]

6. Or perhaps to read a book I recently finished

Hiroshima follows the first few days after the bomb in the lives of a handful of survivors.

Nothing horrifies me more than the thought of what that abomination can do to a human being and to this planet, and the realization that it became inevitable that the human race develop such a thing.

[booksenkatz]

I have been reading "The Day After World War 3"

and the most interesting part of it, to me, is to read in a very detailed way exactly what the thinking was at the time when this stuff was being created. The mindset is stunning, frighteningly so.

I'll have to get that book you mentioned -- I don't know why I torture myself by immersing myself in the subject as I do, but... I do. Maybe it's because I absolutely cannot get it through my head that people actually want to do this. Because they do. Something about it is attractive to them, but for God's sake, I cannot fathom what it is, and I keep studying all of it, trying to see what the attraction is. THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT. And I just cannot bloody believe that.

I will never understand why people who are given great gifts, great raw material, are so content to throw it away with both hands. (I see it every day, not merely on this subject.) We could create an amazing life on this planet, yet so many people in power want to destroy it. Why?

[Garbo 2004]

22. I read "Hiroshima" as I recall when I was 9 yrs old & the next time we had a "duck & cover" drill

at school I pointed out that since we had 4 Air Force bases in the general area (two on the outskirts of our town) and also the Concord Weapons Station down south, in the event of a nuclear war we might just be grease spots within minutes of any alert. I recall that that comment did not go over well with my teacher. This was in the 1962/63 school year.

The Cuban Missle Crisis fit in with the sense, in my recollection, that the real possibility of nuclear holocaust hung over all of us. Popular fiction/films such as Seven Days in May, On the Beach, Dr. Strangelove were current in the early 60's. Much later, in the 80's, there was "Testament" on TV.

"MAD" threatened the world, but that was how we were supposedly supposed to maintain the "peace." And some folks argued about the survivability of thermonuclear war. (Here's an excerpt from Robert Scheer's "With Enough Shovels" from the Reagan years amazingly: http://www3.niu.edu/~td0raf1/history261/nov2616.htm )

To this day, the last Friday of every month at 11:00 a.m. the sirens go off in my city, a monthly test. A holdover from the Cold War. They were to be the warning alert of an impending nuke attack. When frankly all you could do if you lived in an area that might be close to a target was to kiss your ass goodbye and pray. Now they're considered a general emergency warning system. I recall once in the mid 70's a friend from a rural area was in town when the monthly alert went off. She freaked and I had to explain to her what it was. It was so unusual to her and so normal to me. To me it was just a reminder it was the last Friday of the month. But I also remember how once when the damn things malfunctioned and went off not during the usual test time I was "WTF," wondering if something suddenly had gone very significantly wrong with the world.

Perhaps when we try to compare the peace/antiwar movement in the 60's/70's with the present, we forget the impact that the seemingly omnipresent threat of potential nuclear war had on the participants. Just a thought.

I remember the impact "Hiroshima" had on me as a kid. And the news, the drills, etc. Add to that Vietnam, the presumed "proxy war" supposedly between the evil Commies and us. Getting ready for school in the morning with the radio on and the news breaks with the daily "body counts." That was the daily routine for many years in my youth. The evening news, eat dinner while you see the latest reports from Vietnam. In my recollection, we saw more graphic stuff on TV and mainstream print media then than we do today. Buddhist monks immolating themselves in protest, napalmed villagers running for their lives. The troops slogging it out.

Perhaps it was just me and my imagination, but as a kid I sometimes doubted I'd see 30 before the PTB blew up our world.

Now the evil "Russkies" have their own problems and the (Red) Chinese own a good part of our national debt.

Now we got "terra." And perhaps that's supposed to be "The Bomb" of our time now. But so far just for myself I don't think it's quite the same as when gov'ts rattled their nuclear arsenals in the 50's/60's, nuclear testing went on in neighboring Nevada and we kids had duck & cover drills in school. And some folks built their very own bomb shelters (more impressive than duct tape and plastic wrap). And WW III was considered just a politcal mad fatal blunder or a technical "oopsie" away from happening. And I don't recall Pres Kennedy tellng us, "Go shopping."

But the various genies gov'ts developed such as nuclear & bio weapons are not entirely safely in the bottle. ("One Point Safe," "The Hot Zone," and "The Demon in the Freezer" are a few nonfiction books that could give you the willies.) When the Bushies spoke of not ruling out the use of tactical nukes in Iraq, it reawakened some of the old vibes. They would, it seemed, reduce the once "unthinkable" to the mundane.

We're supposed to be afraid of North Korea and Iran. And of course the "terraists." It doesn't seem quite the same to me though. Maybe just because I'm older and figure I'm lucky just to still be here at all. Right now I'm more afraid of what our own gov't might do.

As time goes on, perhaps indeed it is the Earth or the Cosmos itself that will give us a sluffing off.

At any rate, there's always something to be afraid of. 21st century technological capcities in the hands of minds not all that far removed from our first tool using ancestors is certainly one of them.

[Individualist]

13. ...or "On The Beach"

For the younger DUers, this was a chilling 1959 movie about the aftermath of a nuclear war which has wiped out humanity in the northern hemisphere. Gregory Peck stars as an American submarine commander who finds temporary safety in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. This was re-made in (I think) 2003 as a television movie, but the remake wasn't nearly as good as the original.

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. That was a wonderful movie....

Also a very dark one. Scary.

I never saw the remake. It could not have been nearly as good as the original.

[roamer65]

7. If we're gonna have all out global thermonuclear war...

since I am close enough to multiple primary targets, I plan on going outside for it. It will just be a millisecond of bright light and I'm vaporized. Most people don't realize that after such a war, the residents of the eastern US will only live about 5-6 weeks after, due to radiation poisoning. It's not a pleasant death and I'll avoid it even to the point of suicide.

[booksenkatz]

8. "Threads" should be required viewing.

And "Alas, Babylon" should be required reading.

That would do the trick.

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. I remember seeing "Alas Babylon" as an 8 year old...

:scared:

And later reading the book. As an adult.

The line from that.... "There goes Orlando"

:scared:

Then there is "On the Beach".

[booksenkatz]

14. I saw that movie this summer!

It was incredible.

As far as books go, I cannot think of a single book that ripped my heart out more than Alas B. did. After reading that book, I could truly envision nuclear holocaust as a tangible reality... I could finally taste it and see it and smell it in a way I never had before.

[originalpckelly]

9. Just remember kiddies to duck and cover...

like Bert the turtle:
http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

11. The message is simple.

All nuclear weapons should be destroyed. No county has the right to own them, much less the right to use them.

[bertha katzenengel]

21. That's damn right, Roar.

Damn right.

[chknltl]

15. It does me as well...I grew up under the "Duck and Cover" notions

...and when "Ray-gun" got elected I began having nightmares about WWIII. Somehow we survived until the bushbastards brought us back to those days.

There was a large explosion in my neighborhood last week. I was on-line, right here when it happened. My power went out for a few moments then came on, my computer was off. FIRST THING I THINK: EMP!!! I look outside, to the north, (Seattle), for the mushroom cloud. Sucks huh? Why should I have to feel that way? It turns out that the local power substation had something blow, created a good sized cloud throughout my neighborhood too.

So why do I worry? Because summing up all that I learned from bushco leaves me knowing that I can not trust him to protect America from future 9-11s. As a matter of fact, I am not even sure he WANTS to protect us from future 9-11s. Even if that is just a pet tin foil hat worry of mine, I doubt you will find many of our fellow DUers who feel bushco is competent enough to protect us at any rate.

Worse yet, bushco have done more to stir up that ants nest known as the Middle East than any terrorist leader could have secretly dreamed of. I wonder if bushco consults with Osama Bin Laden in order to decide which actions performed by our government will be best to help the terrorists cause. Snark aside, bushco has done more harm to the citizens of the Middle East than Saddam Hussein has at this point. They have committed many of the same crimes that Saddam Hussein did and yet somehow they cling to power. When we argue against impeachment, I believe we are greatly increasing the risk that a citizen from the Middle East will strap on a WMD and take a stroll through one or more of our neighborhoods. I HOPE I AM MISTAKEN
c

[YellowRubberDuckie]

17. I'm terrified as well...

I've been thinking a lot about it lately. I'm not ready to die. Nuclear war has terrified me since I was a kid in the 80s, and I watched those nuclear bomb movies no kid with a single digit age should ever watch. I'm not sure a 27 year old should be watching them. I'm terrified, but mostly I'm sad. I'm sad that people treat each other this way. I'm sad it comes to us destroying ourselves. I'm sad mostly because I think about all the people who have gone before us who died for our freedom. People whose ultimate sacrifice has been rendered for nothing. He's destroying us first before anyone else has a chance. The terrorists never have to pull off another 9-11 again. They did their damage, and Bush and his buddies are finishing the job for them.
Duckie

[donco6]

18. I have visions of it now and then.

Driving home from work or from the mountains, and just being struck by the vision of a nuclear blast over Denver. What would happen? What would life be like? Would I survive? My friends? It really creeps me out. Maybe I've seen too much sci-fi . . .

[Gwerlain]

19. All-out thermonuclear warfare is unlikely at this time.

What is more likely is limited nuclear warfare. Battlefield or terrorism use.

It isn't how bad it is- after all, what can happen to you as a result of a simple building fire is as bad as anything from a nuclear weapon- it's how large the affected area, and affected population, is. And the environmental damage.

Nuclear war terrifies me no more than any other disaster. I think a major asteroid strike might be worse.

[bertha katzenengel]

20. I disagree with you in all but one thing: "all-out . . . unlikely." Yes. But

who cares? I don't care if it's one or two bombs or the whole planet is destroyed in twelve hours. For that power - created by evil - to be used again in this world would be barbarism.

An asteroid strike, an earthquake, a tsunami, a hurricane? Yeah. All could kill more people. Except for carcinogens an asteroid might bring, afaik none of these will cause cancer directly, and none of these disasters is manmade. Do you truly believe a natural disaster could be worse than one we'd bring upon ourselves?

"what can happen to you as a result of a simple building fire is as bad as anything from a nuclear weapon" -- Really? I can die of radiation sickness after exposure to a simple building fire? I can be driven to suicide by the horrible effects of the bomb or by the bitter helplessness I might experience after such a weapon is used? I can watch people die horrible pitiful and inevitable deaths of great suffering because they were in a simple building fire?

[Big Pappa]

24. Fail Safe

is another that is very spooky.

[maine_raptor]

25. Here is a reading list. Feel free to add.

Triumph by Philip Wylie. The story of 14 people who are the only survivors in the Northern Hemisphere after a Nuclear War.

Long Voyage Back by Luke Rhinehart. A family flees the East Coast via a trimaran after The War.

Arc Light by Eric L. Harry. It starts with a "limited" nuclear war and ups the action.

The Last Ship by William Brinkley. USS Nathan James, as the last US surface vessel in a post-war world, searches the world for an uncontaminated place to land.

There are others I know, but these are among, in my opinion, the best.

[terrya]

26. I remember a movie called "Testament"

Came out around the same time as "The Day After". It starred Jane Alexander. It didn't graphically show nuclear war like "The Day After", but it showed the aftermath of a nuclear war and how it affected the survivors in a California town. It was just so...painful to watch these people try to live after that horrific event.

We, the United States, is the only nation on this planet to have actually used weapons of mass destruction (on Hiroshima and Nagasaki). You would think and hope that we will ALWAYS be terrified of nuclear war and the use of nuclear weapons. Our goal, always, should be to stop the proliferation of these weapons and to dismantle our nuclear arsenal. We should never, ever, cavalierly talk about using these weapons.