A-Bomb, H-Bomb & Other Heresies

[Cal McInvale]

In light of the recent dicussion of the atomic bomb & subsequent arms race,
let me pass on a recommendation: Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-prizewinning
author of THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB, has a new book out: DARK SUN: THE
MAKING OF THE HYDROGEN BOMB. Talk about big books: It's a gut-busting 731
page history, with 78 pages of notes, a 16-page glossary of names (you'll
need it!) and a 15-page bibliography. Chronicles the Russian chase for the
A-bomb, the formation of the mad-dog Strategic Air Command, Teller's goofs
with the Superbomb, atomic espionage, nuclear hysteria, Stalinism's
crippling of Soviet science... and oh, yes, the quest for the H-bomb
itself. Not to mention the Cuban missile crisis & the Oppenheimer security
hearings. It's a helluva book, not to be missed if you're into that stuff.

I started the thing thinking, "No way can this be compelling." The A-Bomb
project is, for me, fascinating because of the frenetic pace that usually
lethargic science took in acquiring this dark miracle of power. So I've
read damn near everything I could get my hands on. Now this tome (the first
time the H-Bomb story has been told) comes along and jes' blows me away!
I'm sure that Tommy P. is out there, sweaty hands a-grippin' his own copy.
(While reading I kept thinking of him, wondering what kind of Atom-bomb
novel he'd write. Maybe if he drinks from the fountain of youth he can
churn one out.)

Regarding the so-called moral questions involved in the dropping of the
Bomb on Hiroshima & Nagasaki: How come nobody questions the morality of the
fire bombing(s) of Tokyo & other Japanese cities, where more civilians were
killed than Hiroshima or Nagasaki? Let's face it, fokes: war itself is
"immoral," so nit-picking about the Bomb is mere hair-splitting, ain't it?
Would it have been more moral for my grandfather & his three brothers to
get offed in a land invasion of the islands? The old man sure as hell was
happy he didn't have to go, he told me once; "I'd be dead for sure," he
said. "And you never would have been born."

Go out & plunk down $32.50 for a copy of DARK SUN (it may be discounted at
some of the larger bookstores). You won't be disappointed.


Cal McInvale       e-mail:  godot at wolfe.net
WWW: http://www.wolfe.com/~godot/index.html
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What is most appealing about young folks, after all, is the changes, not
the still photographs of finished character but the movie, the soul in
flux.  -- Thomas Pynchon