REF ID:A39375 

14The Washfn.uon Me...w.Go·Ronndf THE ~ASBINGTON POSTB - e., .... oT Friday, August ZB, 1953 -

H-Bomb Df!ff!nse __ §p_e~_tjfed __ ____ _ B7 Drm.t1 Pear10n I Surprise Raids Are Easy No Attack Soon 

No'iit'.. t~ Russia has the ter-l 1 

rible H·boinb, civil-defense au·; 

thorities are rushing plans to 

evacuate every major city in 

the United 

States at the 

first warning of 

an air attack. 

For the stark 

truth is that 

Soviet bombers, streaking low over our 

radar at night, 

Meanwhile, it is our air-raid As for the likelihood of a 

warning net that has civil-de· Soviet H-bomb attack, our exfense officials worried. The Air perts are convinced the RusForce has built an invisible wall sians have not yet consolidated 

of radar across the Canadian the H·bomb ingredients into an 

border and down both coasts. actual bomb, though this is just Each major city is also ringed a matter of time. Our own sci· 

with radar and antiaircraft entists have built a bomb which 

guns. Only gaps are along our is so large it can barely be 

southern frontier, which is i squeezed into the bomb-bay of 

relatively safe from Russian our biggest planes. However, it 

--cannot be 

m stopped. 

While it's 

been decided to Pearson 

evacuate major cities, a lot of other prob~ems 

remain unsolved and undecide~. 

One of the biggest problems is 

how to get the advance warn· 

ing in time to organize a mass 

evacuation. Even on short notice, however, civil-defense ex~ 

perts still think the best s«?lu· 

tion is to alert the population 

to flee out of town as fast as 

possible. 

Bomb shelters can be built ~o 

withstand the force of an ato:nuc 

blast, but the scorching, sear· 

Ing devastation of a hydrogen ~plosion can reduce a city t~e 

size of New York to cha~o~l m - one blow. As a result, civi~-Oe· 

tis fense authorities have decided 

it is no use to build shelte;rs; 

more practical to concentrate 

on mass-evacuation plans. 

In fact, civil defense has al· 

ready tangled with the military behind the scenes over what to 

do with the people once they 

are evacuated. Civil-defense 

planners prefer to let each in· 

dividual work out his own prob- lem, and drift back into town 

at his leisure after the danger 

is over. 

Military leaders want to organize the construction and fac· 

tory workers, however, so they 

can be whisked back into town 

_ at once to rebuild the blitzed 

n factories or to resume produc· tion without delay if the town 

is spared. 

long-range bombers. will be difficult to drop the I 

However, it's revealing no se- bomb without destroying the - cret that Soviet bombers, :flying plane that carries it. 

low at night, could escape de· Russia's long-range bomber,; 

tectlon until right on top of the the TU-4, can be modified to! _ radar screen. Only then would carry an H-bomb in time. Mean- 1 

our radar-guided night -fighters while, the :Russians could constart seeking them out and at- vert submarines into makeshift _ tacking them one at a t~e. . H-bombs that could be exploded 

; While this grim game of hide- along our coast, spreading ra1 

and-seek was going on, the ma- , dioactive spray that would kill 

jority of the bombers would be all life for miles inland. 

. certain ~o get throug_h to New 1 The Navy has posted picket , York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, De- shi · d "th "ti troit, Washington-particularly _ps, eq~ippe wi sensi ve 

if they crash!ld the radar wall sonar devices, along the coast 

at scattered points. to listen for marauding submaOf course, Air Force scien· ' tines. - However, even tlie Navy 

tists are working feveri.s?ly in acknowledges that this sonar 

secret Boston lab.orat~ries to barrier fs not foolproof. - find a foolproof air-raid warn, . . . ing system. They have invented . Until a better. warnmg net lS 

_ one device, which should give , invented, the Air Force ~gues 

' the United States several hours that .the bettt defe~se against a 

advance notice of any suspi· Russian: H-attack is the power cious flights over one rout~ en· -to retaliate. Only the Ai.r Force 

emy bombers might take to the :has the means to dehver A· 

United States - provided the b.ombs and H-bombs to the ~us­ new device works. However, sian heartland. Just as Russian 

scientists fear that electronics planes CA!1 penetrate our deequipment can be depended fenses, Air Force pla~es can 

upon only half the time in cer· get t~rough the ~ussian. de· . . fenses by saturation raids- tain climates. namely, hitting Russia from 

-------L several sides at once. 

Yet it was the Air Force, our 

first line of defense, that took 

the entire five-billion-Oollar de- fame cut. 

.... -----

Note-The Russian H-bomb With ~uch .efficiency e~perts. as 

explosion has jarred Secretary Charlie Wilson a?d his ~ssis!'-" 

of Defense Wilson- and Deputy ant, Ro,ger ~es, m ~he driver s · Secretary Kyes into thinking seat, even h1gh-ran~g offic~rs 

they may have made a _mistake have to watch their working cutting the Air Force so dras- hours. 

tic ally• ICopyrlrht. 19113. Bell Syndicate. Inc.) 

No Pentagon A WOLs Read Drew Pearson's col1tm7' 

every day in The Washingtoft Top brass around the Penta· Post. Hear him on WTOP 

I 

gon are having trouble these 

days getting the afternoon off. radio at 6:45 p. m. Sunday.