Even before they fully understood the devastation wrought at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Americans began to imagine what nuclear attacks on their own cities would be like. Images of great American cities in ruins moved individual citizens and officials at...

Civil defence refers to any systematic attempts or plans by governments to limit civilian casualties and damage to civil property during a war. The first major civil defence programmes were instituted during the late 1930s, when the danger of aerial...

Complete text of What to Do in an Air Raid Published by the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense, Washington, D.C., 1942. "Await official information before taking any action. When the Air Raid Warden comes to your home, do what he tells you. He is...

As airplanes first began to appear in warfare in the early years of the twentieth century, war's destruction suddenly extended beyond the battlefields to towns and cities. Increasingly, government leaders and the general public worried that...

Civil Defense or Civil Defence (see spelling differences) is an effort to prepare civilians for military attack. Since the end of the Cold War the concept has been replaced by a more general intent to protect the civilian population in times of peace as...

In spite of Anne H. Cahn and Stephen Daggett's persuasive arguments {"The 'Mineshaft Gap' Revisited," Free for All, May 28} that the Soviets' civil defense program does not make nuclear war winnable, I believe that the Sovet program seriously weakens the U.S. nuclear deterrent....

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Yellowish smoke filled a schoolyard and soldiers wailed in pretended anguish in a simulated chemical attack Tuesday, the start of a major civil defense exercise to demonstrate lessons learned from Israel's war with Lebanese guerrillas last summer.Over the course of the two-day drill, thousands of...

A U.N.-backed court sentenced two former leaders of a pro-government militia to six and eight years in prison Tuesday for brutalities committed during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war.The ruling was a victory for the defense, as the prosecution had asked for 30-year terms. It also...