Bomb Shelters and Nuclear Bombs

To the Editor:—  The letter of Dr. Louis Terman (JAMA179:99 [Jan. 6] 1962) should not go unanswered. I would hope that most physicians rather than believing bomb shelters ridiculous would be among their foremost supporters. A sober analysis of the facts of life in the atomic age requires that we take this precaution.Dr. Terman's suggestion that we write our elected representatives in Washington is a good one; but insisting that all nations cease forever from exploding nuclear bombs will have about as much effect on the nonelected officials in the Kremlin as the U.N. resolution forbidding the testing of the superbomb. The unfortunate but undeniable failure of international morality has been repeatedly demonstrated and makes it imperative that, at least for the foreseeable future, we insist rather that our nation maintain the strongest possible deterent force, as the only hope for avoiding thermonuclear war, and provide our