Abstract
If the Soviet Union had attacked the United States on Wednesday, June 15, 1955, would the following have happened in Washington, D.C.?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
The scenario is based upon these sources. Soviet bombers and bases: Steven J. Zaloga, The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces, 1945–2000 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002), 15–24;
Christoph Bluth, Soviet Strategic Arms Policy before SALT (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 5–7, 174–5. DEW, Pinetree, and CONAD:
Kenneth Schaffel, The Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945–1960 (Washington, D.C.: USAF, Office of Air Force History, 1991), 169–71, 209–17, 238–9. D.C. warning system: National Academy of Sciences’s Advisory Committee on Civil Defense, “The Attack Warning System of the Metropolitan Washington Area,” October 1, 1955, box 796, folder “Civil Defense,” RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, Committee on the District of Columbia, file SEN 84A-FS, National Archives, Washington, D.C., 1–9, 12–13. Background on Conelrad: FCC, “Emergency Control of Electromagnetic Radiation Pursuant to Executive Order No. 10312, Dated December 10, 1951,” box 699, folder “136-F CONELRAD,” HST Papers, WHCF, Official File. Four-mile evacuation: Fondahl memorandum, April 7, 1955, box 24, folder “Continental Defense—Continuity of Government (2),” Disaster File. President’s evacuation: “White House Emergency Plan,” August 3, 1955, box 19, folder “White House Emergency Plan—WHEP [1955–58],” NSC Briefing Notes, 1.
Donald P. Steury, ed., Intentions and Capabilities: Estimates on Soviet Strategic Forces, 1950–1983 (Washington, D.C.: History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), 5–7, 26–30.
Carlton Savage, “Continental Defense,” February 10, 1953, FRUS, 1952–54, vol. II, part 1, 231. For more on continental defense policies between 1953 and 1955, see Rchard M. Leighton, Strategy, Money, and the New Look, 1953–1956, vol. III, History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, ed. Alfred Goldberg (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2001), 114–39.
Guy Oakes, The Imaginary War: Civil Defense and American Cold War Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 84–104 (the first quote is on 96; the second, 98). For more on the elaborate nature of civil defense exercises,
see Tracy C. Davis, “Between History and Event: Rehearsing Nuclear War Survival,” The Drama Review 46, no. 4 (Winter 2002): 11–45.
Harry B. Yoshpe, Our Missing Shield: The U.S. Civil Defense Program in Historical Perspective (Washington, D.C.: FEMA, 1981), 189–204.
Jeremy L. Korr, “History of the Capital Beltway in Montgomery County,” The Montgomery County Story 43, no. 3 (August 2000): 140.
Copyright information
© 2006 David F. Krugler
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Krugler, D.F. (2006). Practice Makes Perfect. In: This is only a Test. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403983060_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403983060_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-52897-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-8306-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)