Civil defense, once a hotly debated issue of the 1960's, has again surfaced as a topic of controversy. It reappears amid the discussions of possible new strategies being proposed by the Defense Department. In January 1974, the then Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger announced the intention of the US to develop long‐range ballistic missiles of unprecedented accuracy. Because such weapons would have a relatively small error radius their yield would not have to be as large to be effective against military targets such as land‐based offensive missiles. Hence the Defense Department has raised the possibility of a limited nuclear war with counterforce strikes (that is, against the opponent's offensive force) coupled with a program of civil defense to ensure a minimal level of civilian casualties.

Topics
Ballistics
1.
Civil Defense, a Report to the Atomic Energy Commission by a Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1968.
Available as TID‐24690 from Division of Technical Information Extension, ERDA, P.O. Box 62, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830;
T. L. Martin, D. C. Latham, Strategy for Survival, University of Arizona Press, Tucson (1963);
C. M. Haaland, Systems Analysis of US Civil Defense Via National Blast Shelter Systems, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Report ORNL‐TM‐2457 (1970).
2.
Civil Defense, (N. I. Akimov, ed.), Moscow, 1969.
Translated by S. J. Rimshaw, ORNL‐tr‐2306 (1971).
3.
S. Glasstone, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (revised edition), US Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (1974).
4.
R. H. Sandwina, “Ponast II,” Proceedings of the Radiological Defense Officers Conference, South Lake Tahoe, 23–25 October 1974, State of California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.
5.
E. P. Wigner, “The Myth of Assured Destruction,” in The Journal of Civil Defense (Survive), July–August 1970, P.O. Box 910, Starke, Florida.
6.
D. L. Narver Jr, D. T. Robbins, Engineering and Cost Considerations for Tunnel Grid Blast Shelter Complex, ORNL‐tm‐1183 (1965);
D. T. Robbins, D. L. Narver Jr, Engineering Study for Tunnel Grid Blast Shelter Concept for Portion of City of Detroit, Michigan, ORNL‐tm‐1223 (1975).
7.
Long‐Term World Wide Effects of Multiple Nuclear‐Weapons Detonations, The National Research Council (Committee Chairman, Alfred O. C. Nier); The National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. (1975).
8.
Analyses of Effects of Limited Nuclear Warfare, prepared for the Subcommittee on Arms Control, International Organizations and Security Agreements, of the Committee on Foreign Relations, US Senate, September 1975.
9.
Hearings before the Subcommittee on International Organization and Disarmament Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations, US Senate, Ninety‐first Congress.
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© 1976 American Institute of Physics.
1976
American Institute of Physics
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