Civil Defense

Report Outline
Old Question in New Form
Appraising Soviet Civil Defense
Nightmare of Nuclear War

Old Question in New Form

Peace Groups' Opposition to Cd Plans

President reagan's emphasis on civil defense planning is adding a new element to the ongoing public debate over nuclear arms. Peace activists have seized on the coming United Nations second Special Session on Disarmament to dramatize their concern about the failure of the United States and Russia to agree on significant arms-control measures. The seekers of an international freeze on the production of nuclear weaponry are calling for a “mass demonstration” in New York on June 12, while the U.N. disarmament delegates are meeting. Many persons connected with the movement say they expect protests against a civil defense buildup to join the nuclear-freeze campaign as a major focus of anti-war activity during the year.

As part of his program to build up U.S. military forces to offset a perceived Soviet advantage, the president on March 30 outlined a seven-year, $4.2 billion plan to bolster this country's civil defenses against nuclear attack. The plan emphasizes the removal of residents from large urban centers in an attempt to enable 80 percent of the American people to survive a nuclear war—twice as many as would otherwise survive, according to the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency. Administration officials point out that Russian civil defense concentrates on evacuation of urban populations prior to an expected attack. A comparable U.S. program, they reason, would strengthen the American nuclear deterrent and provide the government more flexibility in its response to a nuclear crisis.

Critics of civil defense planning fear that the more flexibility the government has, the more likely it would seriously consider engaging in a nuclear war. They also see the civil defense program as an opportunity to mobilize public opposition to a further nuclear arms buildup since plans for the “crisis relocation” of city people to the countryside takes the idea of nuclear war out of the realm of abstraction and brings it down to earth.