Where is the indignation about the fact that the United States and Soviet Union have accumulated thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?
Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard which has been communicated to me in manuscript leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and if necessary quick action on the part of the Administration. This new phenomena would also lead to the construction of bombs…. A single bomb of this type carried by boat and exploded in a port might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
…but highly placed sources within the Kennedy Administration disagreed: [T]he assumption that the strategic nuclear balance mattered in any way was wrong… As far as I am concerned it made no difference… If my memory serves me correctly we had some five thousand strategic nuclear warheads as against t heir three hundred. Can anyone seriously tell me that their having three hundred and forty would have made any difference? The military balance wasnt changed. I didnt believe it then and I dont believe it now…
The idea of all-out nuclear war is unsettling.
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace more about killing than we know about living.
Where is the indignation about the fact that the United States and Soviet Union have accumulated thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?
Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard which has been communicated to me in manuscript leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and if necessary quick action on the part of the Administration. This new phenomena would also lead to the construction of bombs…. A single bomb of this type carried by boat and exploded in a port might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
…but highly placed sources within the Kennedy Administration disagreed: [T]he assumption that the strategic nuclear balance mattered in any way was wrong… As far as I am concerned it made no difference… If my memory serves me correctly we had some five thousand strategic nuclear warheads as against t heir three hundred. Can anyone seriously tell me that their having three hundred and forty would have made any difference? The military balance wasnt changed. I didnt believe it then and I dont believe it now…