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Robert D. Gillette, MD
University of Cincinnati Medical Center

JAMA. 1985;253(7):976.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The Aug 3,1984, issue of THE JOURNAL contained a number of excellent articles relating to medical aspects of nuclear war. Open discussion of this topic is valuable and should be encouraged. However, such dialogue has been unnecessarily constricted by the widespread acceptance of some debatable assumptions, including the following:

1. We must educate our leaders on the disastrous consequences of thermonuclear war. Anyone who has seen pictures of Hiroshima and can multiply by a million knows what the results of a total nuclear exchange would be. Further repetition of such obvious facts is not likely to be useful. The real issue is how our leaders should respond to this reality.
   
2. Thermonuclear war would destroy society; therefore, it is futile to think about the medical care of survivors.¹ This belief discounts the possibility of a single nuclear blast. There are a variety of conditions under which
   

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Senior Contributing Editor.

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