How would you judge the humanity or the integrity of government leaders who provide for their own protection against enemy attack, but leave their people like sitting ducks, totally defenseless against enemy aggression and weapons? Yet that is precisely the civil defense posture of our nation today.
The U.S. Government has provided sophisticated protective measures against nuciear attack for high government officials. This clearly demonstrates that the danger of nuclear attack is recognized by our leaders. But they have done nothing to protect the American people or our cities.
The constitutional mandate is clear: the U.S. Constitution requires that the Congress “provide for the common defense.” The statutory mandate is clear: the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950 declares that “it is the policy and intent of Con- gress to provide a system of civil defense for the protection of life and property.”
Has Congress done it? No. Has the White House proposed it? No. No credible civil defense for the American people exists now or is seriously programmed. Yet the failure to provide protection for the population of the United States could, in the event of a nuclear exchange, result in 90 million to 165 million American casualties.
The American Civil Defense Association, a prestigious scientific group whose guiding light is Nobel prize winner Eugene P. Wigner, believes that appropriate civil defense measures would reduce U.S. fatalities in case of nuclear attack from more than half our population to fewer than nine million, or about four percent of our people.
The Association further believes that a credible civil defense program would be a strong deterrent of war because it would discourage nuclear attack by eliminating most of the attractive “soft” population targets.
In its recent annual convention, the American Civil Defense Association passed what it calls “the Kansas City Proclamation”: a demand that our Government fulfill its constitutional duty to defend the American people and their homeland. The Proclamation provides a set of specific directives to our Government to achieve that goal, none of which our Federal Government has yet adopted.
1. Start a sustained program of public education and training which will promote + in-depth understanding of the nuclear-attack issue.
2. Inform the general public of the risks of nuclear attack, the consequences of nuclear warfare, and the modern means available to protect people against the effects of nuclear.weapons, including a description of the techniques now in use or planned for the exclusive protection of government officials.
3. Adopt plans for the emergency use of available shelter space and adapt it to use against damage from nuclear weapons.
4. Designate and develop existing protective facilities, such as Kansas City’s underground complexes, which can be used as guides in constructing protection capabilities in other areas.
5. Encourage and require protective measures in new construction which will shield against nuclear attack, making use of building codes, government construction policies, and tax incentives.
6. Plan for emergency medical facilities, emergency food storage, adequate commu- nications and warnings, rescue and emergency relocation operations, long-term restoration needs, and other measures designed to promote survival and recovery from nuclear attack.
7. Make civil defense an integral part of our national defense, tying it in with other effective means of homeland defense such as an anti-ballistic missile defense.
8. Promote in every practical way a credible U.S. civil defense plan and program along simple, practical lines which will assure a maximum chance of population survival and national recovery, no matter what the attack scenario.
Such measures would promote both the security and the safety of the United States and an honorable peace.
