Will Nukes America

So if we were to turn Nuke 1975 into a novel, what we've written would be the first section, call it, Summer-Fall. This is a series of quick vignettes. 

There would follow The Winter of '76, maybe three or four longer stories about the brutal winter. 

The Battle of Prudhoe Bay would be its own section.

We thought about all this last night, lots of juju but a big risk. We were downright worried when we went to bed. But we took what we take and watched a late Seinfeld nihilistic episode and woke up 45 minutes ago no problem at all.

Not saying we're going to turn it into a novel...

[Ed, the fuck you aren't, knobhead.-ed]

...Just saying that were we to do so...Oh fuck, no.

Will Nukes America

Herein follows a list of the vignettes we have written for Nuke 1975. At this point the timing is rough estimate.

-Maryland Judge swears in Rockefeller during attack
-Flight of F-4s out of Key West Naval Air Station
-Colorado rancher watch Denver and NORAD get nuked
-Bethlehem city council meeting 2 days after attack
-Couple outside of hospital 4 days after attack
-Man comes out of seller, Alvin, Texas, 14 days after attack
-Kansas National Guard digging burial trenches 14 days after attack
-Racial unrest in Arkansas, 4 weeks after attack
-New York National Guard recovers foreign gold held in New York Fed 6 weeks after attack
-Troops return home from Europe two months after attack.
-Owensboro, Kentucky deals with Chicago refugees trying to cross Ohio River, two months after attack

This list does not include presidential speeches, cabinet meetings, etc. Ideas welcome.

Will Nukes America

We figure the Soviets destroy between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of America's oil wells and oil refining capacity. The Feds will hit upon the idea of opening up Prudhoe Bay, which was not yet up and running in 1975. Makes for a good scene. We're reading a book about just that.

We've written a couple of scenes about locals dealing with refugees. That'd get ugly, no.

We also did a scene where the town government of Bethlehem, PA convenes 48 hours the attack. We like this a lot. We are aware that the steel works makes the town a potential target. But we looked up population numbers and in 1975 Bethlehem wasn't in the top 100 cities in America. Also, our maternal grandparents lived there and our grandfather was a geologist for Bethlehem Steel. The old Bethlehem Steele building would make a great place to shelter refugees.

The story takes place in say, April 1975. We think we've got the first 3 months about done. We'll need some winter scenes. Brutal. Maybe tomorrow we'll do a chart detailing the scenes we've written.

We have no idea how this ends.

Will's Good Idea for the Ides of March

Lets finish nuking America. That is, let's get the presidential speeches and meetings done.

In one meeting, prominent types discussing rebuilding efforts with President Rockefeller, Milton Friedman, George Will, etc. Friedman talks about economic challenges, there are 24 ingredients in a pencil, Will suggests building a new capitol at the confluence of the Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

Ideas welcome.

Will Nukes America

So, we know a hell of a lot about American agriculture in the 1970s then we ever thought we would know. 

In 1972 there were 2.23 million farms in America, these produced 40 + billion bushels of wheat. Each farm worker produced enough food to feed 41 people per year, up from 12 per year in 1950. American agriculture was becoming more productive.

According to the State of Kansas farm bureau a bushel of wheat can make 14 pounds of flower and 70 loaves of bread.

In 1975 the United States government had 19 million bushels of wheat on hand. Note this number does not include other foods like corn, soybeans, etc. We haven't quite worked out how many people that would feed. In 1970 the Feds had more than 200 million bushels on hand. The world had a horrible harvest in 1972 and made up the difference by buying American wheat. Ironically the 4th largest buyer was the Soviet Union. The number one buyer was Japan. Between shortages and inflation the price of a bushel more than tripled between 1970 and 1975.

American agriculture accounted for about 5% of the nation's petroleum usage. A senate report from 1985 estimated that a full on nuclear strike that destroyed the nation's top 250 cities (a rough equivalent of what we're doing here) would destroy about two-thirds of the nation's petroleum refining capacity. Assuming the Feds could get the gas to where it needed to be, and this would be a top priority, farms could be as productive as before. The report also estimated that even with missile fields in states like Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, etc, only about 10% of America's farming capacity would be destroyed. Remember that the United States to this day pays farmers to let millions of acres like fallow.

Two other factors are important here. Farms would have a huge labor surplus and millions upon millions of refugees fleeing urban areas are going to have to find something to do. Also, there's about fifty million fewer mouths to feed.

Will Nukes America

So what happens in Europe? We don't have a formal POD and we really don't care. But we assume NATO and the Warsaw Pact fought. Given what we know now we believe the Warsaw Pact would have revolted and the Soviet army in Eastern Europe, cut off from Moscow, would have fallen apart.

Some nuclear weapons have been used but not to the point of Armageddon. Here too, Western Governments have survived. The West Germans are reunifying Germany. In fact Europe is looking at new reality where Germany is top dog again. Yugoslavia breaks up. Lots of internecine fighting between Polish forces and Soviet forces. Etc, etc...

One of the vignettes will be US troops returning home from Europe. They dock at Bayonne, across the river from NYC, up wind of course. Actually Bayonne probably would have been destroyed by the Manhattan strike, but reality must sometimes bend to the will of the author. We could always move the scene south to someplace like Red Bank.