Lewis M. Killian

In retrospect, this is a somewhat humorous look at what the government thought would happen in the event of nuclear war vs. what was actually likely to happen. A large explosion of a fireworks factory made some people think that Houston was under nuclear attack. Did they tune into the emergency broadcast system as they were instructed every day during the system test? No, they called the local civil defense office. Did they get in their fallout shelters? No, they went to the area of the explosion to see what was going on. We now know that in emergencies, people naturally engage in information collecting from sources that they consider reliable, which does not include the media. Thus the attempts to call actual experts and to get information for themselves. This report, however, didn't know about that and despaired of the population being able to survive an actual nuclear attack.… (mehr)