The Threat Of Nuclear War

Kevin Sullivan so enjoyed my anecdote about passing second-term calculus that he shared one of his own:

I instigated one very-MIT hack that has often warmed the cockles....

Following an evening film at MIT (part of a Course XXI film class) about the bombing of Dresden, I found myself returning home walking along the river with a few other Student House friends who attended.

Noting the clear sky conditions that evening, I put out the ideas to my now sensitized and empathetic fellow film-goers that

1. a) the people of Dresden thought they were in a 'protected' city at the time,  that
2. b) in Boston we were in heightened danger of a first-strike nuclear attack by the Russians on our technological center of the universe, and
3. c) one would see the flash from an atomic bomb (and be dead) long before they would hear it. 

The deeply-rooted seeds of the prank bore fruit when within 10 minutes as the whole sky light up in an enormous flash coming from the Boston skyline which just as quickly died down.

As a current participant in Doc Edgerton's High Speed Photography class, I knew he had rented a penthouse apartment on the Boston side of the rivers so he could take evening big-flash photos of MIT with his 100,000 candlepower strobe light. After pointing out to my crouching friends that hiding behind a bush wouldn't be much of a cover, I decided to make my way quickly to a more congenial location.

…

Kevin’s story triggered some recollections. It resonates with me because in my youth, we all thought my hometown of Portland, Ore. (a coin toss away from being Boston, Ore.) was a target because of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia river. Many was the night I went to sleep anticipating not waking up in the morning after a nuclear Holocaust. Vicki tells me people in West LA weren’t worried, but maybe it was just her family. The threat of nuclear war, of course, never really stopped, but it seems most people have ceased to worry about it on a daily basis. I asked my daughters and neither of them could ever remember having nuclear anxiety.

I think that, at mid-century, everyone thought they were in a Ruskie bullseye. So, yet another appeal to readers: was your hometown a target or not, and why?  

Comments

[Robert E Malchman]

Manhattan? Yeah, little bit of a target. I never worried about dying in a nuclear war. Surviving one -- that was a scary thought. I do remember when I was very little that they would test the Civil Defense sirens at noon on Wednesdays. Every once in a while I come across one of those old fixtures (they were like eight feet tall and painted dark green). No idea when it stopped, but it had to be some time in the '70s.