Fallout Quotes
At the time most people had very limited knowledge of the effect of nuclear weapons. Parts of the government wanted the public to think that survivability of a nuclear attack at the time was much more likely and probable than the reality that then existed. At the behest of these government agencies, advice like this was typical of what the media were publishing at the time.
Breslin was criticized in a Federal report for his alarmist news coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear mishap:
In large part he was referring to McCarthyism and the Red Scare.
It was part of the Duck and Cover campaign where school children were taught that in an a nuclear attack they should duck under their school desks and cover their heads with their hands. For other examples of simplistic defense methods that would calm the population see {636091} and England: Whitelaw {614440} and {618657}.
This quotation is very important in helping to understand the 1950s in America with respect to nuclear weapons policy. McCormick was one the better educated, sophisticated, and influential Americans. Yet he appears to be a technological and nuclear ignoramous. Most people had not yet realized that atomic weapons were not just much larger traditional bombs. They could do terrible damage, but it would always be localized they thought. Chicago might be destroyed but the people out of range would be OK. He never got it that a dirty bomb could be dropped on Detroit and depending on which way the wind is blowing could wipe out Chicago and much of the Midwest as well. He knew nothing of the genetic effect the radiation, nor the implications for the environment of maintaining a large nuclear manufacturing industry. He and many like him did not realize that after the first bombs were created, how easy it would be for the Russians and others to also develop a nuclear arsenal. And 50,000 warheads was just a matter of effort. The implications of these things would inhibit our carrying out his and others ideological views of foreign policy. Oppenheimer and most nuclear scientists explained all this, but believing them and acting on those beliefs would have been too much of a change.
