Highlights of THE US CIVIL DEFENSE PROGRAM ‘SF OFFICE OF CIVIL DEFENSE i, June 1963 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSEFOREWORD The Nation is going through the difficult process of digesting the hard fact that under some circumstances, however unlikely they may be, our cities, towns, and homes could be reached by nuclear destruction of vast proportions. Those who are shaping and constantly improving our national security posture seek to assure peace and freedom through a com- bination of military strength, economic progress at home and abroad, diplomacy and arms control. But this balance must include defensive measures, both military and civilian. America has always maintained strong defenses and the realization is spreading that realistic defense against nuclear attack depends on civilian, as well as military, preparations. Our Civil Defense choices are: 1, Doing virtually nothing to save lives under nuclear attack. 2, Reaching for maximum security at costs ranging upwards of $20 billion, with mandatory public discipline and a high degree of organization. 3. Containing and minimizing the damage of nuclear explosions by a more moderate effort to enlarge the mumber of survivors to assure earlier and fuller national recovery. The latter course describes the current policy of the Federal Government. The civil defense program of the Defense Department, carrying out this policy, is described in the pages which follow. ’~Stetart L. Pittman Assistant Secretary of Defense (Civil Defense)Page 1 FALLOUT CONDITIONS -- RANDOM ASSUMED ATTACK This chart portrays the geographic distribution of various levels of radioactivity resulting from an assumed attack. The attack was programmed on a random basis for both the time of the year (one spring day) and the targets attacked, ‘The level of attack is in excess of 5,000 megatons detonated on target, about 65% surface bursts which generate fallout, 75% of the land would be covered with radioactive fallout if average winds prevailed. Areas shown to be free of fallout could virtually all be covered under different wind conditions, The darkest areas show a week to two weeks stay in shelters. Less dark areas would require two days to one week. The light gray areas would require shelter only for the first day or two,WIDE RANGE OF TARGETS: MILITARY, INDUSTRIAL AND POPULATION > FALLOUT CONDITIONS FROM A RANDOM ASSUMED ATTACK AGAINST A | AR? | | | | SURVIVAL ACTIONS [727 no SveLTER RequiRED JERE uP To 2 DAYS SHELTER OCCUPANCY WHIM 2 ovvs To i weex snecreR occupancy issue) |. WEEK TO 2WEEKS SHELTER OCCUPANCY FOLLOWED BY DECONTAMINATION IN EXCEP- TIONAL AREASPage 2 FALLOUT RADIATION EFFECTS This chart illustrates the effects of fallout radiation upon occupants of a typical 10-story commercial building. A few facts about the physical nature of fallout: 1, The fallout particles are like salt or sand; they have weight and settle on the ground; they are not likely to be indoors in harmful amounts, 2, Food is not contaminated unless outdoors and covered by fallout particles; the particles can be removed by washing or peeling. Water from many sources is protected by passing through the ground and by > water purifying systems; unprotected water can be decontaminated in many water systems, 4, Gamma radiation decays rapidly -- roughly to 10% in 7 hours and to 1% in two'days; but in some areas radiation intensity could require shelter occu- pancy for as long as two weeks, In the chart, arrows represent the damaging gamma radiation from fallout particles, The arrows show radiation penetrating the outside walls, injuring persons in the outer rooms. Some radiation would penetrate the protective core area of the building, but the density of building material would reduce the radiation to levels doing little or no harm, To the right.of the building are pictured the initial effects of too much radiation on the human body; destruction of body cells is taking place soon to result in intense illness. Depending on the amount of the dose, death could follow days or weeks later. However, the same radiation is shown passing through food without contamination or damage,FALLOUT RADIATION EFFECTSPage 3 LIFESAVING POTENTIAL OF NATIONWIDE FALLOUT SHELTER SYSTEM. The Department of Defense has conducted studies of over twenty attack patterns over the last two years. These studies were made for many purposes: analysis of military strategy, evaluation of new weapons systems development and civil emergency planning. The targeting was done principally by the Staff of the Joint Chiefs and the Defense Atomic Support Agency, The computer work was performed by the National Resources Evaluation Center and the Support Center for the National Military Command System. The attacks covered various mixes of military targets, urban-industrial targets and population targets, The weights of attacks ranged from 2000 to 13, 000 megatons delivered on the United States; with various mixes of airbursts and groundbursts and sizes of weapons. Many dozens of complex variables were included such as: how war starts; enemy targeting options; enemy abort rates; attrition from U.S. military action; duration of attack; weapons accuracy; upper wind direction and velocity. In evaluating shelter potential, allowances were made for failure of some people to get into available shelters and for poor use of shelters by part of those who do get in, This chart shows composite results for attacks designed to maximize damage of all types, including cities. A nationwide fallout shelter system would save tens of millions of lives in any of the attack patterns considered realistic enough to justify war-gaming type of analysis. Such shelter would double and even treble the number of survivors of the heavier attacks. At lower attack levels, 25 to 40 million people would be saved by a fallout shelter system; 40 million saved would increase total survivors from 80 million to 120 million, The lifesaving potential of shelters increases with heavier attacks and the proportion of survivors who would be alive because they were sheltered increases even more sharply,POPULATION MILLIONS 200- LIFE SAVING POTENTIAL oF FALLOUT SHELTER SYSTEM IN ATTACKS AGAINST MILITARY-URBAN-INDUSTRIAL TARGETS 170: 160 140 120. 100 80. 60 40- SURVIVORS WITHOUT SHELTER FATALITIES: WITH SHELTERS 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 RANGE OF MEGATONNAGE DELIVERED In event of attacks against military targets alone, total fatalities would be reduced and life saving potential of shelters would be increased. SOURCE: Composite of damage assessment studies by Department of Defense Chart 3Page 4 DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION BY CITIES AND TOWNS The distribution of population in the United States is a major factor in determin- ing the vulnerability of population to targeting. This chart groups cities and towns by population. The two most important facts are: The 24 biggest city complexes account for a third of the population. The smaller towns and rural areas account for 38% or nearly 70 million people. One third of the population in the 24 big city complexes would be likely targets of an attack seeking heavy damage to population and industry. Nearly 40% of the population is in towns under 50, 000 and rural locations which are unlikely to be targets in such an attack, The remaining 28% is in middle-sized cities, some of which might be direct targets of an attack on population and industry, depending on how much the enemy will have built up its capacity to deliver nuclear weapons on the United States. A fair generalization would be that, for the near future, over 100 million people would be out of reach of blast in an attack includiag population as an objective. Looking further ahead to much heavier attacks, over 70 million people would be out of reach of blast. The entire population, however, would be exposed to the fallout risk and the chances of survival can be improved in varying degrees, depending on location and the targeting objectives, with fallout shelters.DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION BY CITIES AND TOWNS ‘Chart 4 PERCENT NUMBER OF POPULATION SIZE OF CITIES & TOWNS™| OF TOTAL FOPULATION | CITIES & TOWNS TOTALS (MILLIONS) OVER 1,000,000 34 24 61.5 500,000 - 1,000,000 29 19.2 250,000 - 500,000 2B 48 | 188 15.8 } 51.1 50,000- 250,000 m 16.1 | UNDER 50,000 B -- 69.4 AND + RURAL TOTAL 212 182.0 tl * Includes population of the central city and adjoining areas which are socially and i economically integrated with the central city.