Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

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