... 36 hour war - catastrophe!

... my jaw dropped when I found this sensationalistic warning of a possible Atomic War in an issue of LIFE magazine - dated November 19, 1945!  Just a few months after the World War II ended with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the head of the US Air forces, Gen. 'Hap' Arnold, lays out in remarkable accuracy the future dangers of a war fought with nuclear tipped ICBM's.

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... 36 hour war - incoming!

... 36 hour war - tracking the attack!

... in 1945 RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging) was still pretty whiz bang, high tech stuff. Searching outer-space for incoming rockets was at least a decade away. This illustrations reminds me of scenes from the 'B' science fiction classic 'Fiend Without a Face' . The AV Kid has the whole movie here.  In the movie the search for atomic powered Radar has the side-effect of producing  invisible brain sucking monsters - of course!  

Wonder if 'Hap' Arnold didn't want to tell us about that?

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... 36 hour war - missile interception!

... 36 hour war - atomic missile complex!

... 36 hour war - paratroop invasion!

 

...LIFE magazine was never shy about including a buxom blond for reader appeal!

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... 36 hour war - rubble of New York!

1961 ... you can survive!

... scary Life magazine cover from issue that has the nifty illustrations of different family fall-out shelters. (earlier post)

1962 ... the facts!

... after millions of Americans saw a cover story like this it is not hard to understand it was hard to generate enthusiastic support for civil defense. I was a seven year-old devotee of Life magazine at the time- hence my life-long nightmares of living in underground catacombs with atomic zombies scratching at the door!

I am surprised by how tough and unvarnished the facts of thermo-nuclear war are presented. Try to imagine that this is a very possible scenario for Ozzie and Harriet and not a forty-nine year old piece of historical flotsam.