Mary Palevsky
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520220553
- eISBN:
- 9780520923652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520220553.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
The first section of this chapter aims to understand what happens to people with kind hearts and humanist feelings when they work on weapons of mass destruction, trying to examine the problem of ...
More
The first section of this chapter aims to understand what happens to people with kind hearts and humanist feelings when they work on weapons of mass destruction, trying to examine the problem of power. The second section examines the Bohr phenomenon, and concepts of salvation and redemption attached to the atomic bomb. The third section looks at Robert Oppenheimer's belief in the transcendent meaning of science's creation. The fourth section discusses the “Atomic Scientist's Appeal,” released by the Federation of American Scientists in Hiroshima. The fifth section explores what science is and its larger meaning. The sixth section presents the author's reflections on the life of her parents, and on their teaching about the world of science that had nothing to do with the bomb. The last section closes with a few memories about her father.Less
The first section of this chapter aims to understand what happens to people with kind hearts and humanist feelings when they work on weapons of mass destruction, trying to examine the problem of power. The second section examines the Bohr phenomenon, and concepts of salvation and redemption attached to the atomic bomb. The third section looks at Robert Oppenheimer's belief in the transcendent meaning of science's creation. The fourth section discusses the “Atomic Scientist's Appeal,” released by the Federation of American Scientists in Hiroshima. The fifth section explores what science is and its larger meaning. The sixth section presents the author's reflections on the life of her parents, and on their teaching about the world of science that had nothing to do with the bomb. The last section closes with a few memories about her father.
Edward Kaplan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452482
- eISBN:
- 9780801455506
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452482.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the interaction of national policy under the Eisenhower administration with the new nuclear reality, in plans for nuclear war and through real world crises. During the 1950s, ...
More
This chapter examines the interaction of national policy under the Eisenhower administration with the new nuclear reality, in plans for nuclear war and through real world crises. During the 1950s, the US Air Force's transition from early to the late air-atomic strategy benefited from the vigorous support of President Eisenhower. His administration carefully studied atomic weapons and their implications, and integrated them into national security policy. Eisenhower backed late air-atomic ideas with all of its terrors and rejected conflicting schools of thought, although in crises he steered clear from the danger of world war. Through National Security Council (NSC) paper 162/2 and subsequent Basic National Security Policies (BNSP), Eisenhower articulated a clear declaratory policy, which the action policy—air-atomic strategy—suited well. Eisenhower sought to reduce military spending so to fuel economic growth for a long struggle with the USSR, balancing the “great equation” and avoiding a “garrison state.” His military strategy sought to provide unambiguous destructive potential at low cost. The air-atomic action policy did so.Less
This chapter examines the interaction of national policy under the Eisenhower administration with the new nuclear reality, in plans for nuclear war and through real world crises. During the 1950s, the US Air Force's transition from early to the late air-atomic strategy benefited from the vigorous support of President Eisenhower. His administration carefully studied atomic weapons and their implications, and integrated them into national security policy. Eisenhower backed late air-atomic ideas with all of its terrors and rejected conflicting schools of thought, although in crises he steered clear from the danger of world war. Through National Security Council (NSC) paper 162/2 and subsequent Basic National Security Policies (BNSP), Eisenhower articulated a clear declaratory policy, which the action policy—air-atomic strategy—suited well. Eisenhower sought to reduce military spending so to fuel economic growth for a long struggle with the USSR, balancing the “great equation” and avoiding a “garrison state.” His military strategy sought to provide unambiguous destructive potential at low cost. The air-atomic action policy did so.
Ken Young and Warner R. Schilling
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501745164
- eISBN:
- 9781501745171
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501745164.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
This chapter is an account of the impact on U.S. thinking and policy of the first Soviet atomic bomb test. It ended the U.S. monopoly of atomic weapons—a development that some had foreseen and others ...
More
This chapter is an account of the impact on U.S. thinking and policy of the first Soviet atomic bomb test. It ended the U.S. monopoly of atomic weapons—a development that some had foreseen and others had discounted as a possibility. An atomic Russia triggered fears of a “bolt from the blue” assault on U.S. cities. One reaction was to seek to prioritize U.S. air defenses. Another was to confirm the program agreed to that summer to accelerate the production of fissionable material for atomic bombs. The surge of anxiety also brought hitherto obscure speculations about thermonuclear physics into the public domain. It seemed apparent to some that the Soviet nuclear threat should be countered not by a multiplication of atomic bombs but by an American “superbomb.”Less
This chapter is an account of the impact on U.S. thinking and policy of the first Soviet atomic bomb test. It ended the U.S. monopoly of atomic weapons—a development that some had foreseen and others had discounted as a possibility. An atomic Russia triggered fears of a “bolt from the blue” assault on U.S. cities. One reaction was to seek to prioritize U.S. air defenses. Another was to confirm the program agreed to that summer to accelerate the production of fissionable material for atomic bombs. The surge of anxiety also brought hitherto obscure speculations about thermonuclear physics into the public domain. It seemed apparent to some that the Soviet nuclear threat should be countered not by a multiplication of atomic bombs but by an American “superbomb.”
Mary Palevsky
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520220553
- eISBN:
- 9780520923652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520220553.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
In October 1996, the author traveled to Ithaca to conduct several interviews at Cornell University. There, Kutt Gottfried, a colleague of his father, introduced her to Robert Wilson, the Manhattan ...
More
In October 1996, the author traveled to Ithaca to conduct several interviews at Cornell University. There, Kutt Gottfried, a colleague of his father, introduced her to Robert Wilson, the Manhattan Project experimental physicist. In 1995, he had received an award administered by the American Physical Society given specifically for outstanding work linking physics to the arts and humanities. This chapter presents his admiration of Niels Bohr and his role in the creation of the Federation of American Scientists. It tackles his questioning of the continued development of the bomb after the Germans were defeated, his experience of an epiphany at the Trinity bomb test, and his sense of betrayal on learning that the atomic bomb had been used on Hiroshima. Together with his wife, Jane Wilson, he reveals many reflections on the meaning of success and failure when considering the troubling legacy of atomic weapons.Less
In October 1996, the author traveled to Ithaca to conduct several interviews at Cornell University. There, Kutt Gottfried, a colleague of his father, introduced her to Robert Wilson, the Manhattan Project experimental physicist. In 1995, he had received an award administered by the American Physical Society given specifically for outstanding work linking physics to the arts and humanities. This chapter presents his admiration of Niels Bohr and his role in the creation of the Federation of American Scientists. It tackles his questioning of the continued development of the bomb after the Germans were defeated, his experience of an epiphany at the Trinity bomb test, and his sense of betrayal on learning that the atomic bomb had been used on Hiroshima. Together with his wife, Jane Wilson, he reveals many reflections on the meaning of success and failure when considering the troubling legacy of atomic weapons.
Vince Houghton
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501739590
- eISBN:
- 9781501739606
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501739590.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Political History
The fifth chapter details the dismantling of the American atomic intelligence program following the conclusion of the Second World War. Although it was clear to most that the Soviet Union was intent ...
More
The fifth chapter details the dismantling of the American atomic intelligence program following the conclusion of the Second World War. Although it was clear to most that the Soviet Union was intent on building its own atomic weapon, the American atomic intelligence program did not survive the general demobilization of the post-war United States. Groves’ Manhattan Project (MED) intelligence team was disbanded, and while he kept a small intelligence analysis unit, the means for adequate intelligence collection and analysis were decentralized and scattered across the U.S. Government. During the late 1940s, American intelligence made a series of estimates for when the Soviet Union would build their first atomic bomb. Based on supposition, speculation, and the American and German experiences, the estimates did not effectively evaluate the realities in the Soviet Union.Less
The fifth chapter details the dismantling of the American atomic intelligence program following the conclusion of the Second World War. Although it was clear to most that the Soviet Union was intent on building its own atomic weapon, the American atomic intelligence program did not survive the general demobilization of the post-war United States. Groves’ Manhattan Project (MED) intelligence team was disbanded, and while he kept a small intelligence analysis unit, the means for adequate intelligence collection and analysis were decentralized and scattered across the U.S. Government. During the late 1940s, American intelligence made a series of estimates for when the Soviet Union would build their first atomic bomb. Based on supposition, speculation, and the American and German experiences, the estimates did not effectively evaluate the realities in the Soviet Union.
Mary Palevsky
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520220553
- eISBN:
- 9780520923652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520220553.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
Hans Bethe stood as the author's portal on the quest to understand the people and times that had created the first weapon capable of breaking the world. Born in Germany in 1906, Bethe experienced ...
More
Hans Bethe stood as the author's portal on the quest to understand the people and times that had created the first weapon capable of breaking the world. Born in Germany in 1906, Bethe experienced firsthand the rise of nationalism in response to the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1943, Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos lab, asked Bethe to head the Theoretical Division of the bomb-building project. This chapter presents Bethe's recollections on the discovery of the fissioning nucleus; the war with Germany; the early days of discovery leading to the development of the atomic weapon; as well as his feelings about the bomb's use during the war and his devotion to preventing its use after the war.Less
Hans Bethe stood as the author's portal on the quest to understand the people and times that had created the first weapon capable of breaking the world. Born in Germany in 1906, Bethe experienced firsthand the rise of nationalism in response to the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1943, Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos lab, asked Bethe to head the Theoretical Division of the bomb-building project. This chapter presents Bethe's recollections on the discovery of the fissioning nucleus; the war with Germany; the early days of discovery leading to the development of the atomic weapon; as well as his feelings about the bomb's use during the war and his devotion to preventing its use after the war.
Vince Houghton
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501739590
- eISBN:
- 9781501739606
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501739590.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Political History
The sixth chapter discusses the reasons the United States Government did not consider the Soviet atomic bomb program an immediate national security threat. In contrast to their beliefs about German ...
More
The sixth chapter discusses the reasons the United States Government did not consider the Soviet atomic bomb program an immediate national security threat. In contrast to their beliefs about German science, many American scientists and some within the civilian and military leadership regarded Soviet science as institutionally backward, and many of its scientists as intellectual inferiors. Other key players in American leadership, including Leslie Groves, argued that the Soviet Union did not have the industrial capabilities to manufacture an atomic bomb in less than 20 years. Regardless of the reasoning (whether it was an indictment of Soviet science, Soviet industry, or the Soviet system), the people in the positions of power in the United States almost universally assumed they had time to build an effective atomic intelligence system, and do so before the Soviets made much of that system obsolete.Less
The sixth chapter discusses the reasons the United States Government did not consider the Soviet atomic bomb program an immediate national security threat. In contrast to their beliefs about German science, many American scientists and some within the civilian and military leadership regarded Soviet science as institutionally backward, and many of its scientists as intellectual inferiors. Other key players in American leadership, including Leslie Groves, argued that the Soviet Union did not have the industrial capabilities to manufacture an atomic bomb in less than 20 years. Regardless of the reasoning (whether it was an indictment of Soviet science, Soviet industry, or the Soviet system), the people in the positions of power in the United States almost universally assumed they had time to build an effective atomic intelligence system, and do so before the Soviets made much of that system obsolete.
Tracy B. Strong
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226623191
- eISBN:
- 9780226623368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226623368.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The aftermath of World War I sees the granting of suffrage to women (by the narrowest of margins). The Great Depression makes these deficiencies dramatically clear. The New Deal is an attempt by non- ...
More
The aftermath of World War I sees the granting of suffrage to women (by the narrowest of margins). The Great Depression makes these deficiencies dramatically clear. The New Deal is an attempt by non- or semi-socialist forces in America to deal with the weaknesses of the American state, now that America had grown into the major industrial power. The forces behind Roosevelt soon split into two main factions. Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union Message lays out a new bill of rights that is strongly of the Wallace vision. Wallace is Vice-President until 1944 when he is replaced by Harry Truman. Truman is much less open to co-existence with the Soviets. The USSR is increasingly aggressive in Western Europe – the Cold War is on the doorstep and enters with the publication of George Kennan’s famous ‘Long Telegram’ advocating a policy of containment. Containment is in turn made cheaper by the development of atomic weapons and delivery systems that would have to be in flying range of the USSR. Domestically the fear of Communism leads to a vast shrinking of the political spectrum deemed legitimate.Less
The aftermath of World War I sees the granting of suffrage to women (by the narrowest of margins). The Great Depression makes these deficiencies dramatically clear. The New Deal is an attempt by non- or semi-socialist forces in America to deal with the weaknesses of the American state, now that America had grown into the major industrial power. The forces behind Roosevelt soon split into two main factions. Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union Message lays out a new bill of rights that is strongly of the Wallace vision. Wallace is Vice-President until 1944 when he is replaced by Harry Truman. Truman is much less open to co-existence with the Soviets. The USSR is increasingly aggressive in Western Europe – the Cold War is on the doorstep and enters with the publication of George Kennan’s famous ‘Long Telegram’ advocating a policy of containment. Containment is in turn made cheaper by the development of atomic weapons and delivery systems that would have to be in flying range of the USSR. Domestically the fear of Communism leads to a vast shrinking of the political spectrum deemed legitimate.
Nicola Horsburgh
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198706113
- eISBN:
- 9780191775277
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198706113.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter 1 explores China’s engagement in the process of creating nuclear order before it detonated its own nuclear bomb in 1964. Most analysis of this period tends to point to Maoist China as a ...
More
Chapter 1 explores China’s engagement in the process of creating nuclear order before it detonated its own nuclear bomb in 1964. Most analysis of this period tends to point to Maoist China as a vociferous critic of treaties like the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and therefore an obstacle to building nuclear order. This chapter complicates that picture, arguing instead that China came to facilitate nuclear order as it eventually emerged by indirectly influencing the thinking of the superpowers as to how best to manage nuclear weapons and shape an order based around non-proliferation. Indeed, in the early 1960s China saw value in a nuclear order, presenting its own ideas, including that of ‘socialist proliferation’.Less
Chapter 1 explores China’s engagement in the process of creating nuclear order before it detonated its own nuclear bomb in 1964. Most analysis of this period tends to point to Maoist China as a vociferous critic of treaties like the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and therefore an obstacle to building nuclear order. This chapter complicates that picture, arguing instead that China came to facilitate nuclear order as it eventually emerged by indirectly influencing the thinking of the superpowers as to how best to manage nuclear weapons and shape an order based around non-proliferation. Indeed, in the early 1960s China saw value in a nuclear order, presenting its own ideas, including that of ‘socialist proliferation’.
Robert Fox and Graeme Gooday (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198567929
- eISBN:
- 9780191718328
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567929.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
This book offers a new interpretation of pre-war physics at the University of Oxford, which was far more dynamic than most historians and physicists have been prepared to believe. It explains, on the ...
More
This book offers a new interpretation of pre-war physics at the University of Oxford, which was far more dynamic than most historians and physicists have been prepared to believe. It explains, on the one hand, how attempts to develop the University's Clarendon Laboratory by Robert Clifton, Professor of Experimental Philosophy from 1865 to 1915, were thwarted by academic politics and funding problems, and latterly by Clifton's idiosyncratic concern with precision instrumentation. Conversely, by examining in detail the work of college fellows and their laboratories, the book reconstructs the decentralized environment that allowed physics to enter into a period of conspicuous vigour in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially at the characteristically Oxonian intersections between physics, physical chemistry, mechanics, and mathematics. Whereas histories of Cambridge physics have tended to focus on the self-sustaining culture of the Cavendish Laboratory, it was Oxford's college-trained physicists who enabled the discipline to flourish in due course in university as well as college facilities, notably under the newly appointed professors, J. S. E. Townsend from 1900 and F. A. Lindemann from 1919. This perspective allows us to understand better the vitality with which physicists in Oxford responded to the demands of wartime research on radar and techniques relevant to atomic weapons and laid the foundations for the dramatic post-war expansion in teaching and research that has endowed Oxford with one of the largest and most dynamic schools of physics in the world.Less
This book offers a new interpretation of pre-war physics at the University of Oxford, which was far more dynamic than most historians and physicists have been prepared to believe. It explains, on the one hand, how attempts to develop the University's Clarendon Laboratory by Robert Clifton, Professor of Experimental Philosophy from 1865 to 1915, were thwarted by academic politics and funding problems, and latterly by Clifton's idiosyncratic concern with precision instrumentation. Conversely, by examining in detail the work of college fellows and their laboratories, the book reconstructs the decentralized environment that allowed physics to enter into a period of conspicuous vigour in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially at the characteristically Oxonian intersections between physics, physical chemistry, mechanics, and mathematics. Whereas histories of Cambridge physics have tended to focus on the self-sustaining culture of the Cavendish Laboratory, it was Oxford's college-trained physicists who enabled the discipline to flourish in due course in university as well as college facilities, notably under the newly appointed professors, J. S. E. Townsend from 1900 and F. A. Lindemann from 1919. This perspective allows us to understand better the vitality with which physicists in Oxford responded to the demands of wartime research on radar and techniques relevant to atomic weapons and laid the foundations for the dramatic post-war expansion in teaching and research that has endowed Oxford with one of the largest and most dynamic schools of physics in the world.
Nick Riddle
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325529
- eISBN:
- 9781800342330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325529.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores how Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963) deals with the subject of the nuclear war. In the popular imagination, atomic weapons were simply too big to deal with. In The Damned, ...
More
This chapter explores how Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963) deals with the subject of the nuclear war. In the popular imagination, atomic weapons were simply too big to deal with. In The Damned, nobody mentions nuclear war or atomic weapons by name, and Bernard speaks in allusions and euphemisms. The strategies of allusions and euphemisms reduce the subject of apocalypse to a more manageable, more portable, and more mysterious thing, a 'great whatsit'. Radiation answers this requirement: it is invisible, human-scale, insidious, slower in its effects. The notion of radiation as a virus, like smallpox, that can be used in small amounts to inoculate someone against its own effects is founded on a fallacy — and it is the same fallacy that underlies the irradiated children in The Damned. One can sense, in this uneasy mix of science and superstition, the struggles of post-war culture to come to terms with the puzzling, sinister new world of nuclear physics. The chapter then considers how The Damned experiments with the distinction between living and non-living.Less
This chapter explores how Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963) deals with the subject of the nuclear war. In the popular imagination, atomic weapons were simply too big to deal with. In The Damned, nobody mentions nuclear war or atomic weapons by name, and Bernard speaks in allusions and euphemisms. The strategies of allusions and euphemisms reduce the subject of apocalypse to a more manageable, more portable, and more mysterious thing, a 'great whatsit'. Radiation answers this requirement: it is invisible, human-scale, insidious, slower in its effects. The notion of radiation as a virus, like smallpox, that can be used in small amounts to inoculate someone against its own effects is founded on a fallacy — and it is the same fallacy that underlies the irradiated children in The Damned. One can sense, in this uneasy mix of science and superstition, the struggles of post-war culture to come to terms with the puzzling, sinister new world of nuclear physics. The chapter then considers how The Damned experiments with the distinction between living and non-living.
Jonathan Harrison
- Published in print:
- 1980
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198246190
- eISBN:
- 9780191680946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198246190.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter discusses the following: (1) Atomic weapons may mean that Hume is no longer right in thinking that rules of justice are less necessary for nations than for individuals. A Humean account ...
More
This chapter discusses the following: (1) Atomic weapons may mean that Hume is no longer right in thinking that rules of justice are less necessary for nations than for individuals. A Humean account of the necessity of world government. (2) Actions of nations must be reduced to actions of individuals. Private injustice individually less harmful, and only collectively more harmful, than injustice between nations. Irrationality of the usual attitude to the latter. (3) The connection between the moral obligation and the natural obligation (depending upon interest) to obey the laws of nations. (4) The degrees of stringency of obligations and duties. (5) Duty and knowledge of the practice of the world.Less
This chapter discusses the following: (1) Atomic weapons may mean that Hume is no longer right in thinking that rules of justice are less necessary for nations than for individuals. A Humean account of the necessity of world government. (2) Actions of nations must be reduced to actions of individuals. Private injustice individually less harmful, and only collectively more harmful, than injustice between nations. Irrationality of the usual attitude to the latter. (3) The connection between the moral obligation and the natural obligation (depending upon interest) to obey the laws of nations. (4) The degrees of stringency of obligations and duties. (5) Duty and knowledge of the practice of the world.
John Tirman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195381214
- eISBN:
- 9780190252373
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195381214.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle—100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; over ...
More
Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle—100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; over 1,000 in Afghanistan—and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This book aims to answer this question. Between six and seven million people died in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq alone, the majority of them civilians. And yet Americans devote little attention to these deaths. Other countries, however, do pay attention, and the book argues that if we want to understand why there is so much anti-Americanism around the world, the first place to look is how we conduct war. We understandably strive to protect our own troops, but our rules of engagement with the enemy are another matter. From atomic weapons and carpet bombing in World War II to napalm and daisy cutters in Vietnam and beyond, we have used our weapons intentionally to kill large numbers of civilians and terrorize our adversaries into surrender. Americans, however, are mostly ignorant of these facts, believing that American wars are essentially just, necessary, and “good.” The book investigates the history of casualties caused by American forces in order to explain why America remains so unpopular and why U.S. armed forces operate the way they do.Less
Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle—100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; over 1,000 in Afghanistan—and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This book aims to answer this question. Between six and seven million people died in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq alone, the majority of them civilians. And yet Americans devote little attention to these deaths. Other countries, however, do pay attention, and the book argues that if we want to understand why there is so much anti-Americanism around the world, the first place to look is how we conduct war. We understandably strive to protect our own troops, but our rules of engagement with the enemy are another matter. From atomic weapons and carpet bombing in World War II to napalm and daisy cutters in Vietnam and beyond, we have used our weapons intentionally to kill large numbers of civilians and terrorize our adversaries into surrender. Americans, however, are mostly ignorant of these facts, believing that American wars are essentially just, necessary, and “good.” The book investigates the history of casualties caused by American forces in order to explain why America remains so unpopular and why U.S. armed forces operate the way they do.
George G. Humphreys
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780813182339
- eISBN:
- 9780813182469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813182339.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter covers the tremendous local struggles following the 1937 Ohio River Flood to win federal help in construction of the Paducah flood law and construction of Kentucky Dam by the TVA that ...
More
This chapter covers the tremendous local struggles following the 1937 Ohio River Flood to win federal help in construction of the Paducah flood law and construction of Kentucky Dam by the TVA that completed the series of dams on the Tennessee River, the home front during WW II and the federal government’s decision, in the early stages of the Cold War, to build the massive uranium enrichment plant near Paducah. Political and local leaders united on each of these initiatives, except for the latter one. The Jackson Purchase, the most westernmost part of the state, was once more disappointed in 1947 with the defeat of Harry Lee Waterfield’s loss in the gubernatorial primary to Earle Clements, a rising western Kentucky politician. Paducah’s Senator Alben Barkley was rewarded for his long service with becoming Harry Truman’s vice presidential choice in 1948.Less
This chapter covers the tremendous local struggles following the 1937 Ohio River Flood to win federal help in construction of the Paducah flood law and construction of Kentucky Dam by the TVA that completed the series of dams on the Tennessee River, the home front during WW II and the federal government’s decision, in the early stages of the Cold War, to build the massive uranium enrichment plant near Paducah. Political and local leaders united on each of these initiatives, except for the latter one. The Jackson Purchase, the most westernmost part of the state, was once more disappointed in 1947 with the defeat of Harry Lee Waterfield’s loss in the gubernatorial primary to Earle Clements, a rising western Kentucky politician. Paducah’s Senator Alben Barkley was rewarded for his long service with becoming Harry Truman’s vice presidential choice in 1948.
Matthew Shindell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226662084
- eISBN:
- 9780226662114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226662114.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter assesses the legacy of Harold C. Urey's life and career, utilizing the scientist's own letters written to colleagues toward the end of his life.
This chapter assesses the legacy of Harold C. Urey's life and career, utilizing the scientist's own letters written to colleagues toward the end of his life.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479899623
- eISBN:
- 9781479876730
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479899623.003.0012
- Subject:
- Law, Law of Obligations
Chapter 11 briefly examines the history of our dehumanization of populations abroad, most notably in World War II, when on one front we were fighting Nazi Germany, which oppressed and murdered Jews ...
More
Chapter 11 briefly examines the history of our dehumanization of populations abroad, most notably in World War II, when on one front we were fighting Nazi Germany, which oppressed and murdered Jews as subhuman, while on another front we were bombing Japanese cities and civilians, whom we had dehumanized, ultimately with atomic weapons. Lessons examined in this chapter include those insights gained from the dehumanization of combat and the potential fluidity of the subhuman construction of our enemies, as well as the challenges for the cultivation of compassion posed by technological advances in warfare.Less
Chapter 11 briefly examines the history of our dehumanization of populations abroad, most notably in World War II, when on one front we were fighting Nazi Germany, which oppressed and murdered Jews as subhuman, while on another front we were bombing Japanese cities and civilians, whom we had dehumanized, ultimately with atomic weapons. Lessons examined in this chapter include those insights gained from the dehumanization of combat and the potential fluidity of the subhuman construction of our enemies, as well as the challenges for the cultivation of compassion posed by technological advances in warfare.
Marybeth Lorbiecki
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199965038
- eISBN:
- 9780197563311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199965038.003.0017
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Conservation of the Environment
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. During the dark months of 1939, 1940, and 1941, Europe exploded with tanks, bombs, and guns. The violent side of Hitler’s new German policies proved worse ...
More
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. During the dark months of 1939, 1940, and 1941, Europe exploded with tanks, bombs, and guns. The violent side of Hitler’s new German policies proved worse than Leopold had imagined possible. A letter arrived from Leopold’s host in Germany, Alfred Schottlaender. Schottlaender’s wife had turned him in to the secret police for making antiHitler comments. He had been interned both at Dachau and Buchenwald but had managed to escape to Kenya. He was writing to ask Aldo to help his brother, who was still in Germany. Leopold contacted those he knew, and a place was found in South Africa for Alfred’s brother. “My dear friend Leopold,” responded Alfred, “[You] have given me back the faith of faithfulness, truth, and friendship still existing on earth, which I nearly had lost after having lived to see such terrible disappointments in my own country which I loved so much and served all my life.” Violence seemed to be the common link between the many ways humans acted toward the land and toward each other. Leopold began to refer to conservation as a movement toward “nonviolent land use,” where changes are made gradually and carefully, keeping the land community stable. Then the exploding violence hit the States: the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The next day, Carl enlisted in the marines. On the edge of twenty-two, he had just begun graduate studies in wildlife ecology in Missouri. He hurried to marry Keena Rogers before leaving for combat. Luna enlisted in the army and was sent to California as an army engineer. Starker, who had married and was expecting a child, kept working, but dreaded the mail, which could carry a draft notice any day. Many of the Professor’s graduate and undergraduate students quit school to enlist. Vivian Horn resigned to do her part for the war effort. Sometime in 1942, a round robin of letters was begun between the department and those who had left. Each recipient added comments and sent the letter on to someone else.
Less
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. During the dark months of 1939, 1940, and 1941, Europe exploded with tanks, bombs, and guns. The violent side of Hitler’s new German policies proved worse than Leopold had imagined possible. A letter arrived from Leopold’s host in Germany, Alfred Schottlaender. Schottlaender’s wife had turned him in to the secret police for making antiHitler comments. He had been interned both at Dachau and Buchenwald but had managed to escape to Kenya. He was writing to ask Aldo to help his brother, who was still in Germany. Leopold contacted those he knew, and a place was found in South Africa for Alfred’s brother. “My dear friend Leopold,” responded Alfred, “[You] have given me back the faith of faithfulness, truth, and friendship still existing on earth, which I nearly had lost after having lived to see such terrible disappointments in my own country which I loved so much and served all my life.” Violence seemed to be the common link between the many ways humans acted toward the land and toward each other. Leopold began to refer to conservation as a movement toward “nonviolent land use,” where changes are made gradually and carefully, keeping the land community stable. Then the exploding violence hit the States: the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The next day, Carl enlisted in the marines. On the edge of twenty-two, he had just begun graduate studies in wildlife ecology in Missouri. He hurried to marry Keena Rogers before leaving for combat. Luna enlisted in the army and was sent to California as an army engineer. Starker, who had married and was expecting a child, kept working, but dreaded the mail, which could carry a draft notice any day. Many of the Professor’s graduate and undergraduate students quit school to enlist. Vivian Horn resigned to do her part for the war effort. Sometime in 1942, a round robin of letters was begun between the department and those who had left. Each recipient added comments and sent the letter on to someone else.