FALLOUT SHELTERS

JFK CALLS ON GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY TO PROVIDE FALLOUT SHELTERS FOR FAMILIES

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago today, October 6, 1961, a letter from President John F. Kennedy was read at a meeting of state Civil Defense directors here in the Nation's Capital.

In the letter, JFK called upon federal and state governments, along with private industry, to provide "fallout protection for every American as rapidly as possible."

The President also wrote:

"Radioactive fallout.....could account for the major part of the casualties which  might  result from a thermonuclear attack on an unprotected population."

A "fallout shelter" was designed to protect a group of individuals from the ill effects of radioactive fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion.  Radioactive particles condense in rain and fall to earth subjecting anything in their path to radiation.

When JFK's science adviser explained this to President Kennedy on a rainy day in Washington while sitting in the Oval Office, JFK turned to the window and said softly "you mean in the rain out there?  The adviser, who had nodded his head in the affirmative, later said JFK just started out the window for a few minutes and looked very sad.

Model of a Fallout Shelter

THE SHOWDOWN WITH KHRUSHCHEV I

JUNE 26, 2012

THE SHOWDOWN WITH KHRUSHCHEV I

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) Today we begin our report of Chapter 11 of the book by Kenneth P. O'Donnell & David F. Powers with Joe McCarthy.  It is published by Little, Brown & Company.

The title of Chapter 11 is The Showdown with Khrushchev.


Kenneth O'Donnell says that all of JFK's "other" accomplishments were overshadowed by the Berlin crisis of 1961 & the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.


As British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan put it:


"If Kennedy never did another thing, he assured his place in history by (the) single act (of risking nuclear war to force the USSR to remove its missiles from Cuba)."


Kenny tells this story which I remember was included in some of the JFK tribute documentaries following the assassination.


President Kennedy was in a discussion with his science adviser, Jerome Wiesner, one rainy afternoon when JFK asked how the fallout from atomic explosions returned to earth from the upper atmosphere.


Wiesner answered, "It comes down in rain."


JFK looked out the windows of the Oval Office & said, "You mean there might be radioactive contamination in that rain out there right now?"


Wiesner responded, "Possibly."


Kenny tells us that JFK just sat there looking out the window at the rain for several minutes without saying a word.   Kenny adds that he had never seen the President so depressed.*


*JFK told Kenny privately...."I keep thinking of the children.....all over the world (who are potential victims of a nuclear war)."