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

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Young, Ken,; Schilling, Warner R.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2020]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.) :; 1 b&w line drawing

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.

Table of Contents

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