Nuclear Bombs

I can clearly remember the missile crisis of October 1962, when Soviet Union vessels carrying intermediate range rockets were heading for the the US fleet which was blockading Cuba. Fortunately, the Soviet Union backed down and decided not to "run the blockade". The fear of imminent war was palpable and the whole of the world faced the prospect of nuclear annihilation. The memory of these events still chills me. I remember the three minute warning which Britain would have received if the nuclear weapons had been unleashed. We all left for school in the morning wondering whether we would see our parents again.

No crisis since, short of actually being involved in a war, has matched this for the sheer fear that it provoked that the whole world would end.

During the seventies and early eighties we were"treated" to government propaganda about what to do in the event of another nuclear crisis and how to plan for it- Protect and Survive. There were suggestions to keep a supply of food and water and diagrams showing you how to build an ersatz nuclear fall out shelter in the living room.

Being a natural sceptic, I realised what rubbish it all was:there is no real way to protect yourself from a nuclear bomb or the fall out, chaos and disease that would result from a nuclear war.

My plan was to find the place a nuclear weapon was most likely to hit and end it all quickly.

How did the human species ever indulge in the irrationality and madness of inventing these kind of weapons? What will happen if they fall into the hands of another Hitler or a bigot full of hate?