time in which to form a World State is passing rapidly; it may be gone by the time
this is printed. It is worthwhile to note that the publisher of the string of
newspapers most bitterly opposed to “foreign entanglements,” particularly with
Russia, and most insistent on us holding on to the vanishing “secret” of the atomic
bomb-this man, this publisher, lives on an enormous, self-sufficient ranch, already
dispersed. Not for him is the peremptory knock on the door and the uprooting
relocation order. Yet he presumes daily to tell our Congress what must be done with
us and for us.
Look at the facts! Go to your public library and read the solemn statements
of the men who built the atomic bomb. Do not let yourself be seduced into a false
serenity by men who do not understand that the old world is dead. Regularly, in the
past, our State Department has bungled us into wars and with equal regularity our
military establishment has been unprepared for them. Then the lives and the strength
of the common people have bought for them a victory.
Now comes a war which cannot be won after such mistakes.
If we are to die, let us die like men, eyes open, aware of our peril and
striving to cope with it-not as fat and fatuous fools, smug in the belief that the
military men and the diplomats have the whole thing under control.
“It is later than you think.”
HOW TO BE A SURVIVOR
The Art of Staying Alive
in the Atomic Age
Thought about your life insurance lately?
Wait a minute-sit back down! We don’t want to sell you any insurance.
Let’s put it another way: How’s your pioneer blood these days? Reflexes in
fine shape? Muscle tone good? Or do you take a taxi to go six blocks?
How are you at catching rabbits? The old recipe goes, “First, catch the
rabbit-” Suppose your supper depended on catching a rabbit? Then on building a fire
without matches? Then on cooking it? What kind of shape will you be in after the
corner delicatessen is atomized?
When a committee of Senators asked Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer whether or not
a single attack on the United States could kill forty million people, he testified,
“I am afraid it is true.”
This is not an article about making the atom bomb safe for democracy. This
is an article about you-and how you can avoid being one of the forty million knocked
off in the first attack in World War III. How, if worst comes to worst, you can live
through the next war, survive the aftermath, and build a new life.
If you have been reading the newspapers you are aware that World War III, if
it ever comes, is expected to start with an all-out surprise attack by long-dis
tance atomic bombing on the cities of America. General Marshall’s final report
included this assumption, General Arnold has warned us against such an attack,
General Spaatz has described it and told us that it is almost impossible to ward it
off if it ever comes. Innumerable scientists, especially the boys who built the
A-bomb, have warned us of it.
From the newspapers you may also have gathered that world affairs are not in
the best of shape-the Balkans, India, Palestine, Iran, Argentina, Spain, China, The
East Indies, etc., etc.-and the UNO does not seem as yet to have a stranglehold on
all of the problems that could lead to another conflict.
Maybe so, maybe not-time will tell. Maybe we will form a real World State
strong enough to control the atom bomb. If you are sure there will never be war
again, don’t let me waste your time. But if you think it possible that another
Hitler or Tojo might get hold of the atomic bomb and want to try his luck, then bend
an ear and we’ll talk about how you and your kids can live through it. We’ll start
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with the grisly assumption that the war will come fast and hard, when it comes,
killing forty million or so at once, destroying the major cities, wrecking most of
our industry and utterly disorganizing the rest. We will assume a complete breakdown