The Pauling-Teller Debate: A Tangle of Expertise and Values

摘要

By 1958, Americans had been living under threat of nuclear attack for more than a decade. The United States and the Soviet Union were trading atomic weapons tests, battling for supremacy through displays of scientific and military might. Though the weapons were tested in remote areas, mangled shacks and burned farm animals near the blast sites revealed the destructive power of the bombs. As the total number of global tests grew with each passing year, from 25 in 1955 to 55 in 1957 to nearly 120 in 1958, so too did concerns that the enemy would launch a nuclear attack. Children practiced scrambling under their desks upon seeing a flash of light in the sky. People built fallout shelters and stockpiled them with food, blankets, and first aid supplies, should an atomic bomb make their land unlivable.