Two days

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If the Soviets knew U.S. citizens had built enough shelters to survive a nuclear strike, they would be discouraged from attacking.

The government could not realistically provide and supply public shelters for the entire population.

The short warning time of an imminent attack meant that most people would not be able to travel to public shelters before the blast.

If people built private fallout shelters, it would diminish their sense of panic and helplessness over the nuclear threat, no matter whether the shelters would actually protect them during and after an attack.

Not many people could survive being cooped up underground for long periods of time.

Shelters were not only expensive and difficult to build, but often failed to meet housing code requirements for light, sanitation facilities, and ventilation.

Encouraging people to build shelters would divert their attention to surviving nuclear war, not preventing nuclear war, which was the only real hope.

Private shelters would promote an ethic of saving one’s own skin, without regard for others.

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