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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2018 Nuclear Spaces: Simulations of Nuclear Warfare in Film, by the Numbers, and on the Atomic Battlefield Donald J. Kinney Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES NUCLEAR SPACES: SIMULATIONS OF NUCLEAR WARFARE IN FILM, BY THE NUMBERS, AND ON THE ATOMIC BATTLEFIELD By DONALD J KINNEY A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Donald J. Kinney defended this dissertation on October 15, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were: Ronald E. Doel Professor Directing Dissertation Joseph R. Hellweg University Representative Jonathan A. Grant Committee Member Kristine C. Harper Committee Member Guenter Kurt Piehler Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For Morgan, Nala, Sebastian, Eliza, John, James, and Annette, who all took their turns on watch as I worked. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee, Kris Harper, Jonathan Grant, Kurt Piehler, and Joseph Hellweg. I would especially like to thank Ron Doel, without whom none of this would have been possible. It has been a very long road since that afternoon in Powell's City of Books, but Ron made certain that I did not despair. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..............................................................................................................................................................vii 1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................................1 2. NUCLEAR WARGAMES: 1945 TO 1962 ...........................................................................................14 Introduction: The Live Broadcast of an Atomic Bomb............................................................14 The Atomic Battlefield: Military Simulations of Nuclear War ..................................................18 Baselines: Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki ...................................................................18 Operation Crossroads and the Ghost Fleet.....................................................................22 Operation Buster-Jangle and Exercise Desert Rock ......................................................30 Operation Tumbler-Snapper and Desert Rock IV.........................................................33 Operation Upshot-Knothole and Desert Rock V..........................................................37 Operation Teapot and Desert Rock VI ...........................................................................42 Operation Plumbbob and Desert Rock VII and VIII...................................................44 The End of Desert Rock....................................................................................................46 Survival City: Civilian Simulations of Nuclear War ...................................................................47 The First Effects Tests 1951 - 1952 .................................................................................48 Doorstep and Cue: Civil Defense Simulates Disaster....................................................51 Operation Alert: Rehearsals for Doomsday ....................................................................56 CoG: Government Rehearsals for Surviving Disaster ..............................................................69 The Spectacle of Continuity...............................................................................................70 Codifying Continuity...........................................................................................................73 Questioning Continuity ......................................................................................................76 Conclusion: Tiny Armageddons ...................................................................................................82 3. NUCLEAR WAR ON FILM: THE END OF CIVILIZATION IN FOUR PHASES................85 Introduction: Dress Rehearsal for a Disastrous Performance .................................................85 Nuclear War on Film vs. Nuclear Anxiety in Film ....................................................................87 The Structure of Armageddon......................................................................................................89 Escalation: The Inescapable Momentum of Doom ..................................................................90 Preparation in the Age of Civil Defense..........................................................................91 Without Reason or Warning: Popular Film to the 1980s............................................101 Exploring Escalation in the Films of the 1980s............................................................104 Launch: Short Circuits in the Doomsday Machine..................................................................112 Strike: Duck, Cover, Protect, Survive........................................................................................120 American Civil Defense: Duck and Cover ...................................................................121 Facing the Facts: Documentary Film and Journalism.................................................129 Dramatic Film at the Height of the Cold War.............................................................131 Aftermath: From Hiroshima to the Erasure of History..........................................................134 Survivable: The Films of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.....................................................135 Fallout and Radiation.......................................................................................................138 Social Collapse, Environmental Collapse, and Nuclear Winter.................................141 v The Erasure of History....................................................................................................146 Conclusion: Imagining the Unimaginable................................................................................152 4. NUCLEAR WAR BY THE NUMBERS.............................................................................................154 A Secret Subcommittee................................................................................................................154 An Optimistic View in 1953........................................................................................................156 A Second Subcommittee in 1954 ...............................................................................................158 So Let’s Go On: The Killian Report and Seeds of Doubt .....................................................161 A Human Limit: NESC at the End of the Eisenhower Years...............................................166 Not Just Tragic, But Preposterous .............................................................................................175 11 Copies Destroyed: Kennedy’s First NESC Briefing ..........................................................177 Stalemate: Preemption is Not Possible......................................................................................185 Institutional Suicide: The Last Days of the NESC..................................................................188 Conclusions: A Window on War................................................................................................191 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................193 Three New Ideas ..........................................................................................................................193 Rehabilitating Civil Defense ...........................................................................................193 A Canon of Atomic Cinema...........................................................................................195 The Interplay of the Micro and Macro .........................................................................197 Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................199 Chapter Two: Live Fire and Civil Defense Drills........................................................200 Chapter Three: Atomic Cinema .....................................................................................203 Chapter Four: Analytics and Nuclear War ...................................................................205 Future Work .................................................................................................................................208 In Closing: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Revisited.......................................................................210 References.......................................................................................................................................................212 Biographical Sketch .......................................................................................................................................236 vi ABSTRACT In one sense, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 constitute