A-Bomb, H-Bomb & Other Heresies

[jporter]

>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
>--------------
>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

Thanks for the references.

I agree with Daniel Patrick Moynahan (of all people) Dem., N.Y., that
whatever the answer regarding the use of the atomic bomb, the culture of
secrecy which continued to blossom around the "sacred atomic secret" (my
quotes) was at least as important in providing the shape of the new power
elite which emerged in the post-WWII west, as the threat of atomic
annihilation. At some point, the threat of nuclear war was used as much for
domestic control as a counterpoise to the Soviet threat.

Which brings to mind the French. Exactly who are the French attempting to
intimidate by flexing their nuclear muscles? I can't help but think that
the complete impotence of Europe, including Russia, in resolving the
Bosnian (now there's a Zone for you) crises, is partly responsible for the
French need to demonstrate a nuclear hard-on.

Perhaps they should expend a little more energy clarifying the
collaboration of vast swathes of their cultural elite with the Nazis,
instead of treating the world to another dose of nuclear cum.

"Semolina Pilchard, climbing up the Eiffle Tower..."