Nuclear attack and civil defense : a review

Subsequent events seem to indicate that, when President Kennedy, in July of 1961, made his appeal for family fallout shelters, he was not doing so because he thought the shelters would protect a large part of the public from a likely nuclear attack. Rather, it seems, his intent in the shelter program, as in the call-up of reserves that took place at about the same time, was to enhance the credibility of our asserted determination to defend our position in Berlin. Whatever the President’s intent, his appeal touched off extensive public interest in shelter programs and in civil defense in general; it also touched off extensive discus-