I assume we'd be looking at a Topol SS-25 missile type attack from Russia? For a city such as Boston, are we only looking at a single strike, or does the doctrine call for multiple warheads per city/metro area?
For Boston at least you only have to be 7-8 miles from ground zero to avoid most of the damage and due to the prevailing winds, most of the fallout (from a ground strike) would be towards the north east (an airburst doesn't seem to produce any appreciable fallout).
I like the "only" part :). But in any case, the US and Russia both (by treaty) have about 1500 nuclear weapons ready to use. I'm guessing Boston would get more than one.
I remember hearing that, back in the bad old days of (first) cold war, there was a perverse kind of civic pride about being on the presumed target list. If your city was going to be nuked, then it had to be important.
For Boston at least you only have to be 7-8 miles from ground zero to avoid most of the damage and due to the prevailing winds, most of the fallout (from a ground strike) would be towards the north east (an airburst doesn't seem to produce any appreciable fallout).