One of the striking features of our long coexistence with nuclear weapons is how the fear of them has receded. In the 1950s and ’60s, when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vivid memories, these novel and monstrous weapons loomed over our politics and penetrated our popular culture. The nuclear doomsday thriller “On the Beach” filled us with visceral dread. The dark satire of “Dr. Strangelove” played on real concerns. The laughter provoked by the twisted genius of Tom Lehrer was nervous laughter:
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