Inspired by this recent post I wanted to share some links about the slow-motion nuclear war, waged by the American government against the people of Nevada & Utah.

The book American Ground Zero has some amazing stories & photos about the nuclear detonations in Nevada. The author maintains an occasionally updated blog.

The victims of radioactive wind are sometimes called Downwinders. Besides the Downwinders in Nevada & Utah, many in Washington state and in the Marshall Islands especially have also suffered from nuclear fallout.

(Actually, most of us in the US are "Downwinders" to some degree. Check out this map of nuclear fallout from tests in 1953 alone.)

The radiation causes widespread leukemia and thyroid cancer. Health consequences from these nuclear detonations continue, to this day.

Picture of downwinder Dave Timothy, afflicted by severe multiple thyroid cancers. From the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, according to which:

Physicians project that some 2.4 million people worldwide will eventually die from cancers due to atmospheric nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1980.

To see more pictures, you can find American Ground Zero in some libraries or buy it online. (There are some pretty cheap used copies although unfortunately you don't support the author when you buy them.) I would strongly recommend looking through this book, though you should prepare yourself to feel feelings.

The government claimed ignorance of these effects yet scheduled its nuclear tests for times when the wind was blowing towards Utah, away from Vegas and LA.

These detonations mostly took place in the 1950s. The suffering and death they caused was finally acknowledged by government in 1997, by a National Cancer Institute report to Congress.

(Read more on the history of the Nevada Test Site.)

Other dangerous weapons were also tested:

Throughout the Cold War, one corner of Earth was bombarded with nerve gas, germ warfare, nuclear fallout and other radioactive dust - spread to the winds by bombs, airplanes, artillery and even intentional nuclear reactor meltdowns.

It was Utah.

The bombardment came from the testing and development of exotic U.S. weapons never actually used against enemies. But it likely sickened or killed thousands of unsuspecting Utahns.

These detonations in the desert were not as deadly as the bombs dropped directly onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But they were callous and unnecessary, and it's amazing how little known they are within the United States.