SOVIETS, UNLIKE US, PREPARE CIVIL POPULACE FOR NUCLEAR WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030036-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: March 10, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030036-7
.RTICLE; AFPEARSI~
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
10 march 1980
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By John K. Cooley
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science
Monitor
Washington
While the United States
has largely neglected pro-
tecting Americans against
possible nuclear attack, the
Soviet Union has moved rap-
idly ahead with a program of
shelters, evacuation plans,
and protection of key mili-
tary and civilian targets.
According to a leading US
expert on Soviet civil de-
fense, Leon Goure, and Car--
ter administration experts,
this shows that the Soviets -
unlike the United States -
believe that a nuclear war is
not only possible, but that
millions of civilian lives
could be saved by adequate
defense measures.
Dissident Soviet nuclear
scientist Andrei Sakharov, in
written responses . to ques-
tions sent him at his place of
exile in Gorky, USSR, by the
Washington Post, alludes to
conscious preparation of So-
viet society for possible nu-
-.clear war. While compensat-
ing "for internal defects with
external activism" says Dr.
Sakharov, the. Soviets have
been preaching detente
abroad and simultaneously
"strengthening the militarl-.
ration of the economy and.
military-industrial complex
at home."
The totally' different US
attitude . was . summed up
here by a group of 60 US phy-
sicians. They addressed a
message March 7 to Presi=
dent Carter and Soviet Corn-
munist Party Chairman Leo-
nid Brezhnev, expressing
alarm at "an international
political climate that in-
creasingly presents nuclear
war as . a .,,..:'rational .
possibility.,...:,_..u ~...i.
Casualties in such a war
would "have no precedent in
the history of human exis-
tence." Medical "disaster
P planning" would be mean-
ingless because of wide-
spread destruction of hospi-
tal or other medical
facilities, and "there is no ef-
?.fective civil defense" since
"blast, thermal, and. radi-
ation effects" would reach
even those in- shelters,
whereas fallout would affect
those evacuated, the physi-
cans said.
. The group, including No-
bel Prize laureates Salvador
Luria, Daniel Nathans,
Frederick C. Robbins, Ham-
ilton 0. Smith, and Carl F.
Cori, asked for an early
meeting with Mr. Carter and
Mr.. Brezhnev to discuss de-
fusing Soviet-US tensions,
banning all . nuclear arms
and 'a start to dismantling
them.
A 1978 move by President
Carter and Defense Secre-
tary Harold Brown to give
the US a comprehensive,'
,long-term program of pro-
viding shelters, evacuation
plans, and other measures
'like those the Soviets have
taken since the 1950s was
never followed up by the
White House, Dr. Goure
says,
Rep. Ike Skelton (D) of
'Missouri last year proposed
a $1.9 billion US civil defense
program... It successfully
passed the House but was
killed in a Senate-House con-
ference committee.
A modest new $120 mil-
lion :' effort for fiscal 1981.
(about 12 percent more than
appropriated in 1980)? has
been proposed for civil de-
fense by, John W. Macy Jr.,
director . of the Federal
Emergency Management'
Agency (FEMA). It' would
give priority to protecting .
Americans living near rn s-
site fields, bomber bases, nu-..
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
clear submarine ports, and
other possible priority Soviet
military targets in 31 US
states-
"Token" measures : -
marking old shelter areas
like underground garages or
subway stations, or building
a few new shelters - would
be useless in case of a nucle-
ar war today between the
United States and the Soviet
Union, Dr. Goure asserted..
He spoke at a briefing in
which be illustrated with So-
viet photographs, films, and
texts the USSR's huge civil
. defense program.
"Between 110 and 140mil-
lion Americans," said Dr.
Goure, associate director of
the Advanced International
p
Studies Institute of the Uni- r some - of the - Soviet
versity of Miami, Fla., measures: =
"would perish, while Soviet ca independent scholarly
fatalities would likely be un- assessments, and those of
der 20 million" because of ! British, Swedish, and Swiss
Soviet protection measures, intelligence, indicate the So-
including comprehensive viets spend about: $7 to $35
plans to evacuate cities. per person each year on civil
"This means," he added, defense, while the US spends
"that the US would suffer 45 cents.
certain defeat in the war and w The Soviet civilian de--
Probably extinction as a fence effort, directed since
'functioning society. The So- 1373 by Gen. Alexander T.
viet Union would survive Altunin, is under the control
with its present leadership of the Red.Army and Soviet
and system of rule essential- ' Communist Party. About
ly intact," and with power to 100,000 full-time civil defense
reconstruct and dominate personnel, including f!` L
.the postwar world..? et general officers? are sup-
The present strategic bat- ?plemented by about 20 mil-
ance - which. former - US lion part-tinge workers.
arms control chief Paul '0 ' Soviet schoolchildren
Warnke said last. year would get compulsory audiovisual
tip against whichever super- instruction in the second,
power developed no compre- fifth, and ninth grades in
hensive civil defense sys- what nuclear warfare is like,
tem, if the other one did - is and what can be done to sur-
now so unfavorable to the US wive it. Summer camps give
that "the -American people - Soviet youths detailed field
are in hostage to the strate- instruction 'in ,conventional
gic power of the USSR, with"1j and nuclear "`cfyi1 defense
their lives dependent on the i; techniques even before they
restraint of the Soviet lead- I. are ? drafted -.into military
ershi~p Dr. Gourd charged 1~ service.
e-Dr. Goare says the CIA
and others have underesti-
mated the Soviet capacity to
protect key ieaders, crucial
industrial worked and oth-
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While the US has believed
a US-Soviet nuclear war
would bring "mutual as-
sured destruction" (MAD)
of both, and therefore was
unlikely, the more vulner-
able the US was, the safer it
would be,. Dr. Goure
contended.
By contrast, the USSR. re-
jects the MAD concept and
seals its own "unilaterally
assured survival," welcom-
ing the continued weakening
-of -US defenses,- he-added. .
Dr.. Goure quoted' Soviet
military and political lead-,
cessfully fought and won..
In the West,' said Dr.
Goure, only . Switzerland.
Sweden, and Norway have
provided their populations
with real protection against
nuclear war com
arable to,