V-2s in Truman's Statement after Hiroshima

[Smoke Teff]

I just reread *Slaughterhouse Five. *Haven't read it in maybe eight years.
I recommend it as a quick sidecar to BtZ, an alternate perspective not only
on the war (also there actually is a lot of thematic and philosophical
kinship) but on how to make a book about the war. In it, Vonnegut quotes
directly from Truman's statement after the atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima.

In case anyone is interested, I'm pasting the statement here. Vonnegut
includes about half of it.


 Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and
destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. That bomb had more power than 20,000
tons of TNT
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/truman/psources/ps_memorandum.html>. It had
more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam"
which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.

The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been
repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added
a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing
power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in
production and even more powerful forms
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/> are
in development.

It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the
universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed
against those who brought war to the Far East.

Before 1939, it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was
theoretically possible to release atomic energy. But no one knew any
practical method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew that the Germans
were working feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to the other
engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world. But they failed.
We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans got the V-1's and V-2's
late and in limited quantities and even more grateful that they did not get
the atomic bomb at all.

The battle of the laboratories
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/truman/psources/ps_einstein.html> held
fateful risks for us as well as the battles of the air, land, and sea, and
we have now won the battle of the laboratories as we have won the other
battles.

Beginning in 1940, before Pearl Harbor, scientific knowledge useful in was
pooled between the United States and Great Britain, and many priceless
helps to our victories have come from that arrangement. Under that general
policy the research on the atomic bomb was begun. With American and British
scientists working together we entered the race of discovery against the
Germans.

The United States had available the large number of scientists of
distinction <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/truman/psources/ps_einstein2.html> in
the many needed areas of knowledge. It had the tremendous industrial and
financial resources necessary for the project and they could be devoted to
it without undue impairment of other vital war work. In the United States
the laboratory work and the production plants, on which a substantial start
had already been made, would be out of reach of enemy bombing, while at
that time Britain was exposed to constant air attack and was still
threatened with the possibility of invasion. For these reasons Prime
Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt agreed that it was wise to carry
on the project here. We now have two great plants and many lesser works
devoted to the production of atomic power. Employment during peak
construction numbered 125,000 and over 65,000 individuals are even now
engaged in operating the plants. Many have worked there for two and a half
years. Few know what they have been producing. They see great quantities of
material going in and they see nothing coming out of these plants, for the
physical size of the explosive charge is exceedingly small. We have spent
two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history -- and won.

But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor
its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together
infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields
of science into a workable plan. And hardly less marvelous has been the
capacity of industry to design and of labor to operate, the machines and
methods to do things never done before so that the brainchild of many minds
came forth in physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. Both
science and industry worked under the direction of the United States Army,
which achieved a unique success in managing so diverse a problem in the
advancement of knowledge in an amazingly short time. It is doubtful if such
another combination could be got together in the world. What has been done
is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. It was done
under pressure and without failure.

We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every
productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall
destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there
be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.

It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the
ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/truman/psources/ps_potsdam.html>. Their
leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our
terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has
never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and
land forces in such number that and power as they have not yet seen and
with the fighting skill of which they are already well aware.

The Secretary of War, who has kept in personal touch with all phases of the
project, will immediately make public a statement giving further details.

His statement will give facts concerning the sites at Oak Ridge near
Knoxville, Tennessee, and at Richland, near Pasco, Washington, and an
installation near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although the workers at the sites
have been making materials to be used producing the greatest destructive
force in history they have not themselves been in danger beyond that of
many other occupations, for the utmost care has been taken of their safety.

The fact that we can release atomic energy ushers in a new era in man's
understanding of nature's forces. Atomic energy may in the future
supplement the power that now comes from coal, oil, and falling water, but
at present it cannot be produced on a bases to compete with them
commercially. Before that comes there must be a long period of intensive
research. It has never been the habit of the scientists of this country or
the policy of this government to withhold from the world scientific
knowledge. Normally, therefore, everything about the work with atomic
energy would be made public.

But under the present circumstances it is not intended to divulge the
technical processes of production or all the military applications. Pending
further examination of possible methods of protecting us and the rest of
the world from the danger of sudden destruction.

I shall recommend that the Congress of the United States consider promptly
the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the production
and use of atomic power <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/index.html> within
the United States. I shall give further consideration and make further
recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a
powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.
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