Megadeath

Megadeath

Megadeath (or megacorpse) is a term for one million deaths by nuclear explosion. It was coined in 1953 by RAND military strategist Herman Kahn and popularized in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War. In Kahn's view, alternate scenarios in which the United States of America suffers 10 megadeaths instead of 100 should be weighed as "tragic but distinguishable outcomes." Though the term was created in order to discuss the likely consequences of conducting nuclear war, such a large number of deaths could also be associated with other weapons of mass destruction.

In Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, General Buck Turgidson (played by George C. Scott) carries a binder titled "World Targets in Megadeaths." In the film, Turgidson promotes an all-out pre-emptive strike, which he feels will result in acceptable American casualties, with the phrase "...choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless, distinguishable post-war environments: one where you've got 20 million people killed, and the other where you got 150 million people killed."

Popular culture

In 1983 by the American thrash metal band Megadeth.

A parody heavy metal band called Megadeath closed the 1973 National Lampoon Off Broadway hit play and sound recording Lemmings, a parody of the Woodstock Festival.

References

  • Kahn, Herman. (1960) On Thermonuclear War. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-313-20060-2

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • megadeath — (n.) 1953, from MEGA (Cf. mega ) in scientific sense (one million) + DEATH (Cf. death) (n.). The death of one million persons, as a measure of the effectiveness of nuclear weapons. The resulting pile of dead bodies would be a megacorpse,… …   Etymology dictionary

  • megadeath — ☆ megadeath [meg΄ədeth΄ ] n. [ MEGA + DEATH] one million dead persons: a unit in computing the hypothetical victims of a nuclear explosion …   English World dictionary

  • Megadeath — Megatote (englisch megadeath oder megacorpse) ist eine Kurzform für eine Million Todesopfer bei einem Demozid, insbesondere durch Massenvernichtungswaffen. Der Begriff wurde 1953 im Kalten Krieg von dem US amerikanischen Strategen Herman Kahn im… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • megadeath — noun Date: 1953 one million deaths usually used as a unit in reference to nuclear warfare …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Megadeath — Megadeth Megadeth Megadeth sur scène en 2008 Pays d’origine …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Megadeath — …   Википедия

  • megadeath — /meg euh deth /, n. a unit of one million deaths: used in estimating or predicting the fatalities that would occur in a nuclear war. [1950 55; MEGA + DEATH] * * * …   Universalium

  • megadeath — noun one million deaths, especially as a unit of measure in reference to nuclear warfare …   Wiktionary

  • megadeath — meg|a|death [ megə,deθ ] noun uncount a million deaths: used for talking about the number of deaths caused by a nuclear war …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • megadeath — unit of fatality equal to one million deaths Units of Measurement …   Phrontistery dictionary

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