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feebobeduefGeneral Twining said that the people who are responsible
for backing up governmental decisions live in the cities and would
object to a lack of urban protection. Moreover, our productive
power is concentrated in the cities and would be lost to us in the
event of attack unless the cities were protected.
The Vice President said consideration should be given to
what Congresa would do with a shelter program. In his view, submission of a large shelter program to Congress would result in lobbying,
a fantastic boondoggle, and a great debate. A study of the shelter
problem would be desirable, but submission of a program to Congress
this year would produce an umaitigated mess.
The President noted that it had been said that fallout
shelters might save 50 million people, a reduction of 35% in casualties. In talking about such figures, we were talking about the com. plete destruction of the United States. There would be no wey of
living in a situation of such large casualties. In studies of the
problem, lesser damage should be assumed or we would be forcing ourselves toward the conclusion that we should surrender. The President
asked how mich the NATO countries were doing on shelter.
Governor Hoegh said Denmark was sheltering 25% of the urban
population, had spent 1 million kronen in 1957 and would spend 3 mil-
lion in 1958.
France planned to provide blast shelter in target
areas, fallout shelter elsewhere.
cept.
The President, interrupting, asked about the dual-use conHow could an underground garage be used for shelter if it was
full of autos?
Governor Hoegh replied that there would be room for large
numbers of people even before the autos were moved out.
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The President said he had been impressed by General Twining's point. We were talking about saving people in the rural arees,
but we might still lose if all the productive power of our cities
were destroyed.
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The President asked how deep a city blast shelter would
have to be. Such shelters seemed to him to require a stupendous
engineering feat. Admiral Strauss replied that blast shelters had
to be far underground. Moreover, the problems of air, electricity,
etc., were not simple. Dr. Killian agreed that shelter construction was not a simple problem.
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Secretary Dulles said it was his impression that the European countries were carrying on a World War II type shelter program
which was not designed to meet the nuclear threat.
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