~66— development may matter little. The consequences of a marked disparity between opponents in the spatial concentration of populations and industry is left to a separate discussion later in this chapter. But one of the aspects of the problem which might be mentioned here, particularly as it pertains to the United States, is that of having concentrated in a single city not only the main agencies of national government but also the whole of the executive branch, including the several successors to the presidency and the topmost military authorities. While an aggressor could hardly count upon destroying at one blow all the persons who might assume leadership in a crisis, he might, unless there were considerably ¢ereater geographic decentralization of national lcadership than exists at present, do enough damage with one bomb to create complete confusion in the mobilization of Sapte resistance, (2 < it goes without saying that the governments and‘poppdations of different countries will show different levels of apprehension concerning the effects of the bomb. It might be argued that a totalitarian state would be less unready than would a democracy to see the destruction of its cities rather than yield on a crucial political question. The real political effect of such a disparity, however--if it actually exists, which is doubtful—can easily be exagzerated. For in no case is the fear of the consequences of atomic bomb attack likely to below. More important is the likelihood that totalitarian countries can impose more easily on their populations than can democracies those mass movements of peoples and industries necessary to disperse urban concentrations. The most dangerous situation of all would arise from a failure not only of the political leaders but especially of the military authorities of a nation like our own to adjust to the atomic bomb in their thinking and planning. The possibility of such a situation developing in the United States is very real and very grave. We are familiar with the example of the French General Staff, which at