Social and Behavioral Factors in the Implementation of Local Survival and Recovery Activities.

William Chenault, Richard Engler and Peter G. Nordhie. Social and Behavioral Factors in the Implementation of Local Survival and Recovery Activities. Published by Human Sciences Research, Inc., of McLean, Virginia. 1967. 11x8. Original wrappers. 87pp+xiipp+3pp. Fine condition. WorldCat/OCLC locate 5 copies. [++] The baseline to this pamphlet is this: that in a post-thermonuclear war United States there will be survivors; the survivors will have "hardships", but the hardships will be overcome; the key issue is to get survivors to work together to put the country back on its feet militarily and economically; survivors will need "incentives" to work together; the strong will survive. There will be worries about compensation for destroyed property, shipping schedules, trust in money, and a certain amount of debt forgiveness. There will be tax--sales tax. There is no mention of the amount of death or the continuation of the dying in the year or two postattack, but there is a graph, and the graph is not pretty. It doesn't get very much mention. .communities of [nuclear] disaster struck individuals need to define their needs and activities in the immediate context of the community . pg. 5. The tendency of nuclear disaster is to isolate communities. pg 6. This study reports on the ways in which American society can survive and rebuild following a devastating nuclear/thermonuclear war. The authors list five consequences of severe attack : #1. Tremendous destruction of property. #2. Disruption of transportation and shortage of fuel for motive power together with an associated disruption of regional specialization and significant breaks in geographical continuity. #3. Drastic reorientation of effective economic demand #4 . General disruptions of normal interindustry flows #5. Shortages of technical and professional manpower in some fields. I particularly like #3. Also the use of words like shortages and disruption . And why they stopped there I really don't know. Much of the report is an examination of how to get the surviving elements of society back on its feet via carrot-and-stick methods, coaxing people into working together, with the eventual goal of restructuring the country, building America back again, observing capitalism, the tax codes, exchanging labor exchange units for goods and services. Personal and group motivations would continue to be related to economic organization and production as they are in the preattack society (pg 1) It follows that the nature and direction of many recovery activities will be determined by national, not local, requirements (pg 3) Individuals must be motivated to implement policies and perform activities dictated by national economic interests . (pg 4).…