Many people feel a need to believe that somehow they would be among what could only be a very few that would survive an all out WWIII, I think if people new how catastrophic it would actually be far fewer of the would be able to tell themselves that they had any hope whatsoever of surviving.
While the former Soviet Union no longer exists I think a piece of declassified information I read about their plans if an all out world war were to occur would make many realize how little chance they would have of surviving.
Every town/city with a population of 10,000 people ore more was targeted. Every dam was targeted (even though the bombing of dams is against the Geneva Convention). Every bridge (not counting highway over pass type bridges) was targeted. Every water source of a half decent size/supply capability was targeted. When it came to major cities individual governmental/military buildings were targeted resulting in depending on the size and importance of the city some major cities had as many as 20 individual warheads targeted for them. To attempt to cut as much communication capability as possible a series of high altitude air bursts crossing the U.S, and other nations (mainly as in NATO nations) was planned to be among the first detonations, and of course the hope was the EMP would destroy most to all electronic circuitry. Of course every military base/military port was multiply targeted. Every ICBM site and silo was multiply targeted. NORAD, under Cheyenne Mountain, had a large number of warheads targeted for it in successive attacks to literally dig it out from under the mountain and destroy it. Every known or suspected safe site (bunker system) for politicians and military heads had multiple warheads targeted for them, again with plans of digging them out. Any airport capable of handling even the smallest sized military aircraft was targeted. All railroad marshaling yards were targeted. Every port was targeted, larger and more important ones with multiple warheads. All sources of electricity generation were targeted. All refineries were targeted. All gasoline/oil/natural gas storage locations were targeted.
The list went on and on, it was very extensive. With that many mushrooms sprouting there would be few that would be outside of blast ranges, and far fewer who would be in a location where just the radioactivity traveling with the winds would not kill them.
Food stocks would be gone or to radioactive to eat. Livestock would be gone, lost in blasts or to radioactivity. The topsoil where crops were grown would be covered in a layer of radioactive dust/dirt/debris and without stripping it the ground could not be used to grow crops. Creeks, streams, rivers and lakes would be radioactive. Radioactivity would seep down into the water table over time making it unsafe for those few who might have a well and some way of drawing water from it.
Few people caught in the heart of such an all out world war would survive for long even if they somehow managed to survive the actual attacks.
In what I read the U.S. plans were not given, but were said to be believed to pretty much mirror those of the Soviet Union.
So, if it came down to something like Russia and China and the U.S. and it's nuclear NATO allies, all going all out, what do you really believe the odds of your survival would be if you lived in any of those nations, or any non-nuclear nations allied to them?
Does the phrase 'slim to none' come to mind, or do you still believe you will somehow be in some protected little pocket, some small area, where none of that could effect you to a point where survival became highly doubtful?