Of course, I don’t believe a full-blown nuclear exchange is survivable (I live in the Seattle area, and hope with the combination of a joint Air Force/Army base, three or four naval installations, Boeing and multiple seaports, I’ll be vaporized in the first round). But I have long loved a novel about a time when nuclear war was thought to be survivable… Pat Frank’s “Alas, Babylon” (1959). It was from that time before ICBMs were widespread, before anyone thought much about nuclear winter, and both sides had a hope of taking down bombers with anti-aircraft missiles and fighters.

I too wish nukes could be taken off the agenda. Barring alien intervention, I don’t think that’s been a possibility for about 70 years now. I’m old enough to remember almost the entire Cold War. You really do learn to live with it.