I think the 60’s were the worst. In the popular sentiment, we had Dr. Strangelove. In practice, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, many near accidents with nuclear weapons, and the US and the Russian governments were both quite awful.
Even with Ukraine, I think things are less bad with Russia, but there’s several more nuclear armed nations. China, NK… Each one adds a new risk. We don’t think about them much, but for example, India and Pakistan each have 100 nukes pointed at each other, and if they are fired, we will all feel the consequences.
In any case, I think Nukes have permanently moved the world much closer to Doomsday than it ever was before nukes. Before Nukes, Doomsday was a fun science-fiction or religion idea that had no grounding in reality. After nukes, Doomsday is simply a thing that could really happen in an afternoon.
Certainly the early 60’s FELT like the worst. The fear that people felt during the Cuban missile crisis is much greater than any fear that people feel today. And how many houses being built today have bomb shelters in the basement as a requested feature: they were almost standard in the early 1960’s.
One of my uncles was in the construction industry (carpenter) in the 1950’s and 1960’s so showed us a number of them in new houses he had been involved with. They were underground, in a corner of the basemen, with cement walls. They were small. I think they were built to protect against explosions and radiation rather than being a long term place to live. How effective they would have been is anyone’s guess. This was in Ontario but I assume similar design in US.
I am only personally familiar with the basement shelters found in Ontario. I am guessing where there were no basements the shelter was an above ground concrete bunker.
In addition to a Google search, maybe there is a US old timer here who could answer your question.
I’m old enough to remember the 1960s. I don’t recall knowing anyone who said they had a fallout shelter.
At one level, shelters make sense. I’m sure the half-life of many of the radioactive isotopes is pretty short. Staying away from that could be enough to avoid early death from radiation sickness. You don’t even need to be perfect about staying in the shelter. It seems that running out to pee would be okay.
OTOH, do you really want to try to live in a post-nuclear US? I recall this movie which deals with both. The Day After - Wikipedia
A lot of people watched it in the 80s. " With a 46 rating and a 62% share of the viewing audience during the initial broadcast, the film was the seventh-highest-rated non-sports show until then"
(before cable/dvds/streaming viewing shares could be quite high)
In the mid-60’s, a neighbor about 5 houses away had an outdoor fallout shelter. As I recall it was on a sloped lot. One wall was completely above ground, but there was some dirt covering a fair part of the roof and other sides (one wall completely covered). No part of the roof covered by more than 2 feet of dirt. Many houses had basements, but I wasn’t aware of any other fallout shelters. (Small college town, about 2000 permanent residents, under 4000 including students. Some emergency shelters in basements on the campus, but I don’t remember what kinds, if I ever knew.)
Yes, food would be a thing. The movie takes place in Kansas. I expect they wanted “heartland”, and there was a missile silo pretty close. Food production wasn’t the biggest short term issue. I remember “breakdown in norms”.
One main character is a farmer. At the end, he is shot casually by someone who is passing through and camping on his land.
Just thought I would resurrect this thread because it looks like the Russians are now heading towards what looks like an internal civil war.
Worth stating that the repression in Russia right now about the war is predicated on the higher ups going along with the situation, given that the security apparatus controls the country.
The wildcard however was always Prigozhin (the face and boss of Wagner). He was useful to the higher ups, until he made them look bad by calling them incompetent. Seems the higher ups have started getting rid of internal competitors inside Russia and are now focusing on Prigozhin. Problem is he has a sizeable amount of mercenaries behind him and a societal megaphone.
If he stays on the sidelines, while Ukraine executes their counter-offensive, the Russians will have some pretty serious problems.
Sounds a bit like the Roman Empire. A general with a sizable army becomes persona non grata in the capital so instead of accepting their decision he thinks “maybe I can run this whole thing”.