House Armed Services Committee Research Articles

Behavioral Research on Fallout Shelters: A Summary of Some Evidence

Earlier this year the House Armed Services Committee had under consideration a bill for the construction of public fallout shelters, HR 3516. This article is from testimony given one of its subcommittees on June 17, 1963, by Dr. Solomon, Executive Secretary of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Psychology in National and International Affairs. Introducing his testimony to the subcommittee, he stated: “I appear here today not as a special pleader, but as a behavioral scientist presenting a brief overview of the current research findings in his field which bear directly upon your present concerns.” Those findings are that public opinion is concertedly anti-shelter and that mere, involvement in a shelter program may increase public belief in the imminence of war.

WASHINGTON NEWS

<h3>Increase in Military Physicians' Pay Urged.—</h3> The American Medical Association has urged that the maximum incentive pay of physicians in military service be increased from the present $250 a month to $400 a month. In a statement submitted to the Military Pay Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, the AMA noted that more than two-thirds of the younger physicians in the armed services were resigning as soon as their military obligation was fulfilled and the armed services have been unable to retain enough physicians to provide adequate medical services for military personnel. The draft of physicians has proved "a most unsatisfactory mechanism toward building a career military service," the AMA said. "It is therefore recommended that H.R. 5555, 88th Congress, be amended to increase the doctor incentive military pay to $300 per month after six years of active military service and to $400 per month after 10 years of

House Armed Services Committee Forms R&amp;D Subcommittee to Oversee Rising Research Funds

House Armed Services Committee Forms R&amp;D Subcommittee to Oversee Rising Research Funds

Military Importance of the Atomic Bomb

In our discussion of Prof. Blackett's book FEAR, WAR AND THE BOMB (BULLETIN, February, 1949) we promised to return in more detail to the military side of his argument. This has proved difficult because of unwillingness of those really familiar with military planning for an “atomic war” to comment publicly on this subject. Recently, the arguments of Dr. Blackett (who sees in the atomic bomb only another powerful high explosive bomb, and assigns to it primarily tactical function in support of ground forces, while minimizing the importance of both “conventional” and atomic strategic bombing) have been taken up, practically word for word by Navy spokesmen before the House Armed Services Committee. The announcement that the Soviet Union has developed an atomic bomb and the Navy vs. Air Force debate have stressed the vital importance of an enlightenment of American public opinion on the strategic value of the atomic bomb. As a contribution to this discussion, we reprint below, from the magazine SOCIAL RESEARCH (September, 1949), a substantial part of a critical review of Blackett's book by Mr. Kaysen, of Harvard University, one of the social scientists who has long been concerned with the problems of atomic energy.