Word: attacker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...would be horrifyingly destructive. This is the conclusion of a study entitled The Effects of Nuclear War, released last month by the Office of Technology Assessment. An arm of Congress, the OTA analyzed several levels of nuclear exchange. Among them was a classic case of controlled nuclear war: an attack on U.S. oil refineries by ten Soviet SS-18 missiles, each carrying eight warheads of one megaton force. Such an attack would destroy an estimated 64% of U.S. petroleum-refining capacity, along with railways, petrochemical plants, and storage facilities near the refineries...
While the Russians would primarily be aiming at economic targets, according to the study's script, their attack would take an enormous human toll because U.S. oil production facilities are near Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and other large cities. In the first hour after the strike, more than 5 million Americans would be killed by searing heat, explosive force, high winds, fire and crumbling buildings, if the Soviet warheads exploded aboveground. (Airbursts suck up relatively little debris to settle back to earth later as radioactive fallout.) If the Soviet missiles were detonated at ground level, immediate fatalities would...
...week following the attack, says the OTA report, those living near the targets would be "in a state of shock, with their lives disrupted and further drastic changes inevitable ... People would face many immediate tasks: care of the injured, burial of the dead, search and rescue, and fire fighting." A major problem would be the treatment of the tens of thousands of third-degree burn victims. At present notes the report, the combined facilities of all U.S. hospitals can treat no more than 2,000 cases of severe burns...
...extent of suffering would depend on several variables. Example: if the attack were to take place on a clear summer weekend afternoon with most people outdoors, the number exposed to direct thermal radiation would be 25 times greater than if it were a cold winter night with most people inside their homes...
...retaliate for the strike without escalating the conflict, Washington might order a ten-missile attack on Soviet oil refineries. The OTA evaluates a case in which the U.S. fires three Minuteman Ills, each carrying a trio of warheads that can deliver a 170 kiloton explosive force, and seven submarine-launched Poseidon missiles that carry a total of 64 warheads, each with a 40 kiloton force. The attack instantly destroys 73% of Soviet refining capacity. But because the U.S. weapons are less powerful than Soviet warheads, there is less general damage. Between 1 million and 1.5 million people would...