Defining Armageddon

Three Dartmouth seniors translate the arcane jargon of nuclear war.

I—last February, Harper & Row published "an intelligent citizen's dictionary" of nuclear war. Three hundred pages of terms lead the layman through weapons, treaties, and history, along with slang that reveals the attitudes of those with their fingers on the trigger. The study won praise from Time magazine and The Los Angeles Times for its objective approach to the once-unspeakable. The Kirkus Review said of the book, "The accumulation of definitions... has the combined effect of a time-bomb ticking away in the reader's psyche." The three authors appeared on the Today Show, and early sales of the book have been brisk.

This impressive feat of publishing is made even more remarkable by the fact that the authors Eric Semler, James Benjamin, and Adam Gross along with senior researcher Sarah Rosenfield '87 were all undergraduates. They graduated from Dartmouth last month.

The three young men stated in their introduction that they "felt frustrated by our inability to penetrate nuclear jargon and concerned enough to do something about it." The complexity of the language contributes in part to a "disturbing lack of public interest" in thinking about nuclear war, they said. Believing that comprehension of the terms is a first step toward eliminating the threat of nuclear war in the future, the students gathered information from a wide range of sources and produced what the publisher calls "the first comprehensive, objective, jargon-free, clearly written dictionary of nuclear weapons."

The lay reader may be struck at first by the euphemistic nature of some of the terms: "Big Bird," for example, is a hypothetical method of deploying nuclear missiles. "Nuclear war is a difficult thing to think about," says Semler. "To be surrounded by all those gloomy scenarios each day I can see how people could use words like 'golden arches' [a nuclear missile's flight path]; they're thinking of Mc Donald's while they're working on this problem in order to get themselves through the day."

The authors say they worked hard to keep any political bias out of their writing. "If people want to get rid of Star Wars or think we need Star Wars, that's the important thing," explains Adam Gross. "To be apathetic about this topic is a disgrace. We all feel that a certain amount of the apathy is because people think it's all above their heads. But everyone can understand this. You don't have to be a scientist. You don't have to be a strategist. Anyone who really has an interest and wants to learn can do it relatively painlessly and should know about the subject because it affects everyone ultimately." Ten Allbright

ASTRODOME DEFENSE is a nickname for a hypothetical defense system that could destroy all incoming warheads fired by an attacker. An astrodome defense would be leakproof and cover vast distances of space in order to wipe out all attacking missiles. It is analogous to a roof that prevents any raindrops from leaking into a sports arena during a storm. Throughout the nuclear era, defense experts have debated whether it is technologically and economically feasible to build an astrodome defense.

BALLOON is a light, hollow sphere of metal released from an attacking nuclear missile in order to deceive enemy defense systems. Some balloons contain warheads, while others do not. Balloons thus force defense systems to squander time and ammunition to destroy all balloons in sight, whether or not they contain warheads.

BIG BIRD is a hypothetical method for deploying nuclear missiles. Big Bird would involve deploying missiles on cargo planes which would be in the air 24 hours a day. In this way, missiles would be moving targets and their vulnerability to enemy attack would thus be reduced. Big Bird was first conceived as a method of deploying the United States' MX missile. The plan was abandoned, however, and the United States eventually decided to deploy the MX in existing underground missile silos. Big Bird is also the generic name for a series of U.S. satellites.

BLACK RAIN is rain colored black by debris and laced with deadly radioactive fallout. Black rain was first observed at Hiroshima, Japan, after the first atomic bomb was dropped there on August 6, 1945. Black rain may cause radiation sickness, genetic damage, cancer, or death, and may follow any nuclear explosion.

BROKEN-BACK WAR is a nuclear war that continues unabated even after each side has been totally devastated.

COUNTERFORCE-PLUS BONUS is a nuclear attack on enemy military targets with the added intention of destroying as much of the enemy's population and property as possible. In counterforce-plus bonus, an attacker obtains a "bonus" by attempting to deny the enemy an opportunity to gain revenge. The term was popularized by American defense analyst Herman Kahn. Counterforce-plus bonus is distinct from counterforce-plus avoidance, which is a nuclear strike on enemy military targets with the specific intention of avoiding the destruction of population and industrial centers.

DECAPITATION ATTACK is a nuclear strike targeted at a nation's leaders and primary command posts. It is intended to wipe out an enemy's ability to coordinate decisions and relay orders for a counterattack. Thus, the purpose of a decapitation attack is to paralyze an enemy in a single nuclear strike.

DOG HOUSE is the U.S. name for a Soviet radar system that detects attacking nuclear missiles. First deployed in the late 19605, the Dog House is a highly sophisticated radar that can track many objects simultaneously. Dog House is part of the Galosh defense system, which protects Moscow from a potential nuclear missile attack.

FAIL-DEADLY refers to a system that fires nuclear weapons without orders from authorities. A nuclear attack may prevent headquarters from sending orders to launch nuclear weapons. Crew officers could attribute this lack of communication to an enemy strike on command centers and decide to launch nuclear weapons on their own. In this way, crew officers would launch nuclear weapons independently, without instructions from authorities. Faildeadly applies mainly to submarines. Fail-deadly is distinct from fail-safe, which applies to land-based missile crews. In fail-safe, crew officers maintain mechanisms that prevent the launching of missiles without proper orders and release codes.

FLASH NUDET is U.S. military code for the detonation of a nuclear weapon.

FOOTBALL is the nickname of the briefcase whose contents allow the U.S. president to launch a nuclear attack. The Football contains top-secret release codes and the Black Book, which outlines the President's options in the event of a nuclear war. The Football is usually carried by a military aide to the president and is always within the president's reach.

FRATRICIDE is a phenomenon in which an attacking nuclear missile may reduce the effectiveness of subsequent missiles. When a nuclear weapon explodes, it produces a tremendous amount of lingering debris. If fratricide occurred, this debris would disable or destroy subsequent incoming warheads. Fratricide has been considered as a factor in protecting nuclear missiles against an enemy attack. Although the concept is widely disputed, it is believed that if missiles are deployed in a closely based cluster of underground missile silos, fratricide will prevent an enemy attack from being effective.

GOLD CODES is the nickname of the codes that activate the release of U.S. nuclear weapons. Gold Codes are a random combination of numbers and letters, which are changed daily for security reasons. Gold Codes are submitted to the White House and to all installations where U.S. nuclear weapons are deployed. This has been the procedure since 1962, when President John Kennedy established the Gold Codes to enable a quick presidential decision to launch nuclear weapons.

GOLDEN ARCHES is a U.S. military slang term that describes an attacking nuclear missile's flight path as it streaks over the North Pole. Both American and Soviet nuclear missiles would fly over the North Pole in a nuclear war.

HARDBODY is a slang term for a nuclear missile streaking toward its target that has been identified by a defensive system. A hardbody would be extremely difficult to destroy because the enormous trail of heat it would

emit would effectively conceal its precise location from enemy sensors. KILL RADIUS is the area around a nuclear explosion within which all people are killed. The kill radius can vary, depending on the size and type of weapon, and on where and how it is used.

KOKURA is a Japanese city that was the primary target of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. On that morning, Kokura was shrouded in bad weather, and the mission's commander decided to drop the bomb on the secondary target, Nagasaki.

MINI-NUKE is an informal term for a small, low-yield nuclear weapon. Mini-nukes are tactical nuclear weapons, designed for battlefield use. Mininukes are also known as nominal weapons.

NATIONAL TEST BED refers to a sophisticated computer system that simulates high-technology nuclear battles conducted in space. The national test bed is an important tool used in research on the strategic defense initiative, commonly known as "Star Wars."

NUCFLASH is a U.S. military code named for the message that would tell the U.S. president and secretary of Defense of an accidental or unauthorized launch of a nuclear weapon.

NUCLEAR FOOTPRINT is the pattern formed by the detonation of several nuclear warheads. Many missiles carry several nuclear warheads. This technology, known as Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicle (MIRV), allows a single missile to release more than one nuclear warhead. These warheads can be aimed individually at a single target but made to land at slightly different points and times. A nuclear footprint implies that one missile causes damage over a wide area and leaves a distinctive pattern.

PHYSICS PACKAGES is a nickname for nuclear missiles and nuclear warheads.

RED BOX is the nickname of the container that holds two essential elements for launching a nuclear attack. In the Red Box are codes necessary for verifying an order to launch a nuclear attack and keys which actually activate the launch of nuclear missiles. Secured with double locks, a Red Box is stored in bombers, submarines, and underground missile silos that contain nuclear missiles. In preparing to launch a nuclear strike, crew officers would open the Red Box.

SAINT GEORGE, Utah, nicknamed Fallout City," is a small town in western Utah, located about 150 miles from the site where the United States conducts all of its nuclear tests. During the Dirty Harry test in May 1953, it received the most deadly fallout ever measured in any populated area in the U.S. As a result of their proximity to the test site, Saint George residents are victimized by an extremely high cancer rate. In 1954 the film The Conqueror (starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward) was filmed outside Saint George. By 1980, 41 percent of the cast and crew (including Wayne and Hayward) had contracted cancer.

SPASM WAR is a type of enormously destructive nuclear war in which total resources are employed ruthlessly in a brief conflict.

THINKING ABOUT THE UNTHINKABLE is a popular phase that describes actively considering the horrors of nuclear war. Coined by American analyst Herman Kahn in his 1961 book Thinking About the Unthinkable, the phrase urges everyone to open eyes to the possibility of nuclear war. In this way, Kahn argues, we will realize what is at stake and we will work hard to ensure that nuclear war never occurs. By the same token, Kahn asserts, we must be prepared to consider using nuclear weapons in order to prevail if nuclear war breaks out.

THREE Rs OF WINNING A NUCLEAR WAR are reload, reconstitute, and refire. The three Rs represent the theory that if one side could store abundant backup (reload) missiles, reassemble its forces after absorbing a nuclear strike, and then fire its remaining missiles from launchers that have been used already, it would have a tremendous advantage in a war.

UNK-UNKS, short for "unknown unknown,' are effects that seem likely to occur but are impossible to predict accurately. The electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a powerful burst of radiation released after a nuclear explosion, is an unk-unk. The exact implications of an EMP are unsure but some experts have theorized that the EMP released by one large nuclear explosion over the central United States would cause an electrical blackout of the whole nation.

The three authors of The Language of Nuclear War: left to right, Adam Gross, Eric Semler, and fames Benjamin.

Twenty-eight definitions from The Language of Nuclear War, An Intelligent Citizen's Dictionary by Eric Semler, fames Benjamin, and Adam Gross. Copyright 1987 by H. Eric Semler, fames Benjamin, and Adam Gross. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.