I believe that somehow we obtained the Rooskies target list at one time, and I noticed that I lived within the fireball of a one megaton targeted airburst in the 50’s and 60’s. It’s a good thing that we didn’t bother building fallout shelters - it would have been a waste of time and money!
The exact opposite actually.
Yes, there would have been tens of millions killed immediately by the first-second-third-fourth blast of A-bombs over cities and other targets. Tens of millions more later from outside-the-blast-fire and blast effects. Tens of millions after that from hunger, thirst, sickness, and “conventional” death by disasters and problems.
But many dozens of millions NOT in immediate nor long term danger from the blasts. Even in Siberia last year, most injuries would have been prevented by a simple duck-and-cover (stay away from windows after a sudden white flash!) A-bomb blast training.
Bomb shelters, distance, and simple civil defense preparations were being thrown away by disdain by the liberal-socialist-communist media and academia elites then (and still are now!) BECAUSE they are effective.
Bomb/fallout shelters for airbursts, even in the multi-megaton range, weren’t a bad idea. They wouldn’t have provided 100% survivability, but would have increased chances significantly.
It’s close-in groundbursts that made bomb shelters ineffective.