JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Yesterday I wrote a post about Robert Oppenheimer's 1945 Congressional testimony on the economics of using atomic bombs over conventional bombs. In an earlier section of the same volume1 publishing the Oppenheimer statements there are also testimonies of some other Los Alamos and atomic bomb figures, including Harold Urey, Irving Langmuir, and Vannevar Bush. And Leslie Groves. General Groves of course was the military chief of the Manhattan Project and ran it with some interpersonal difficulties but with great success with Robert Oppenheimer, who was in charge of the scientific cadre. They were an odd pair but worked well enough together to push through an enormous project of absolutely fantastic complexities and depths. In questions from six Senators Groves addressed a number of wide-ranging issues about the bomb, though what particularly appealed to me today was his observations on the possibilities of the U.S. precipitating some sort of event with atomic weapons that would bring an end to the world. The question came from Senator Richard Russell (Ga.) who (with some difficulty) asked after this possibility. Groves responded with brusqueness and a sort of common authority, which I reprint below.
“Senator Russell: General, the papers tell us that some of the scientists are of the opinion that if a large number of these [atomic bombs] were exploded over the world that it would reach out into the elements in the atmosphere and instead of being a world we would just be a new star, and all life on the planet would be extinguished almost automatically. Do you have any theory on that to give us?
General Groves: My only theory is that I don't worry about it because if it happens it will be all over and we won't have that to worry about. We won't have to explain that one but the theory is not concerned with getting a number of these bombs but with getting one that is big enough to do that. No one knows what that size is. It is all highly theoretical...It is more or less the kind of thing that they [physicists] will discuss as a possibility when they are just sitting around talking theoretically they may be able to prove that such a thing is possible but the best advice I have and I certainly don t hold any personal views or knowledge on the subject but the best advisers tell me that they are not a bit worried, and I personally am not worried. I feel it will be beyond my lifetime and then I will let the next generation worry as to whether they are going to blow themselves up or not.”
And there you have it.
Notes:
1. HEARINGS BEFORE THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ATOMIC ENERGY UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY NINTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION PURSUANT TO S Res 179 4. A RESOLUTION CREATING A SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE PROBLEMS RELATING TO THE DEVELOPMENT USE AND CONTROL OF ATOMIC ENERGY. USGPO, 1945.
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