Here Is New York

“Here Is New York” was published in 1949, just four years after World War II. The destruction and death wrought by the conflict, specifically by nuclear weapons, is apparent in the way White describes the city’s vulnerability to aerial attacks. Specifically, White writes that “of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority” (54). In describing the type of attack that New York might be the target of, White says “a single flight of planes” could “burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions” (54). This last phrase, “cremate the millions,” suggests historical context for White’s fears. In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic weapons on Japan via airplane, in a bid to end the war. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed those cities and killed tens of thousands of people instantly.

As the Cold War dawned, the fear of nuclear weapons being used against major cities in the United States escalated. In the 20 years after the publication of “Here Is New York,” the American people—especially those living in major cities—became increasingly aware of the threat nuclear weapons posed. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 is perhaps the closest the world has come to the kind of large-scale annihilation White describes. In this incident, the Soviet Union and the United States came close to war over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. These missiles had the capacity to reach the continental United States. After a heated standoff between US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the situation was resolved peacefully and the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba. However, this encounter showed that the fears of nuclear war alluded to by White were a real, persistent anxiety for many Americans during the midcentury.