Recovery from Nuclear Attack

PREFACE This report on Recovery From Nuclear Attack should be of interest to all concerned with civil defense and nuclear attack. As pointed out in the report, the "impossibility" of recovery is often advanced as a reason for doing nothing to develop an effective civil defense program for the United States. However, those who have devoted years to the study of civil defense in general, and postattack problems in particular, do not agree that recovery would be impossible. There is no doubt whatsoever that if a large-scale nuclear exchange should ever occur, the result would be a massive disaster for the societies involved. The death, suffering, misery, and long-term consequences of various types would have few if any parallels in human experience—and certainly none in the history of the United States. But this is not the same as saying that recovery would be "impossible." As the report says, "in years of research, no insuperable barrier to recovery has been found." The genesis of this publication was the perceived need to respond to not infrequent inquiries on nuclear attack recovery issues. The starting point was a 1979 "Research Report on Recovery From Nuclear Attack," published by the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency—a predecessor to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Based on research and new concerns, the document is a significantly revised and updated effort to deal with the difficult issues of the effects of the use of nuclear weapons against the United States.