1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910973434303321

Autore

Young Ken

Titolo

Super Bomb : Organizational Conflict and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb / / Ken Young, Warner R. Schilling

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, NY : , : Cornell University Press, , [2020]

©2020

ISBN

9781501745188

1501745182

9781501745171

1501745174

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource.)

Collana

Cornell Studies in Security Affairs

Disciplina

355.8/251190973

Soggetti

Hydrogen bomb - United States - History

Hydrogen bomb - Government policy - United States - History

Arms race - History - 20th century

United States Military policy

United States Politics and government 1945-1953

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Also issued in print: 2020.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Shock of the “New World” -- 2. Advising on the Super -- 3. A Decision Reached -- 4. Moral and Political Consequences -- 5. Dissent and Development -- 6. Tactical Diversions -- 7. Rewriting Los Alamos -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Super Bomb unveils the story of the events leading up to President Harry S. Truman's 1950 decision to develop a "super," or hydrogen, bomb. That fateful decision and its immediate consequences are detailed in a diverse and complete account built on newly released archives and previously hidden contemporaneous interviews with more than sixty political, military, and scientific figures who were involved in the decision. Ken Young and Warner R. Schilling present the expectations, hopes, and fears of the key individuals who lobbied for and against developing the H-bomb. They portray the conflicts that arose over the H-bomb as rooted in the distinct interests of the Atomic



Energy Commission, the Los Alamos laboratory, the Pentagon and State Department, the Congress, and the White House. But as they clearly show, once Truman made his decision in 1950, resistance to the H-bomb opportunistically shifted to new debates about the development of tactical nuclear weapons, continental air defense, and other aspects of nuclear weapons policy. What Super-Bomb reveals is that in many ways the H-bomb struggle was a proxy battle over the morality and effectiveness of strategic bombardment and the role and doctrine of the US Strategic Air Command.