What would nuclear war look like in the 21st century?
Two books examine atomic weaponry and the global annihilation it could bring about
IN 1960 America had around 18,000 nuclear weapons. It also had detailed plans for how to use them. Had it implemented them, 275m people in the Soviet Union would have been killed in the first hour of war. Another 325m would have died from radioactive fallout over the next six months. Even if China stayed out of this prospective war, the fallout would have killed perhaps 300m of its citizens.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Under the mushroom cloud”
From the April 6th 2024 edition
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