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Living With the Bomb
AUGUST 2005
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| Living With the Bomb |
Notes From Author
Richard Rhodes |
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I've been writing about nuclear issues now for more than 30 years. I've written two books (on the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs) and several dozen magazine articles and given a hundred or more public lectures. I assumed at first, naively, that I was telling the story of a technology: the discovery of how to release nuclear energy and its application to make weapons of war. The more I study the subject, however, the more fundamental the discovery seems. It had scientific and military consequences, but it had and has enduring human and political consequences as well. To say it simply: In discovering how to release nuclear energy, humankind acquired a new knowledge of the natural world. Energy had previously been expensive and severely limited, but nuclear energy is comparatively cheap and effectively unlimited. When we applied that knowledge we found to our surprise that large-scale war that drew on nuclear energy—on atomic and hydrogen bombs—was no longer possible because every belligerent would be consumed in the general destruction. The result, paradoxically, was that the great and increasing flood of man-made death in the first half of the 20th century was abruptly terminated in 1945. It was brought under control. So long as the arsenals remain, omnicidal annihilation is still possible. World war is not.
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Exploring the subject of nuclear weapons has been difficult and sometimes grim. At the same time, it has brought me into rewarding contact with a large community of experts and witnesses. In my 1986 history, The Making of the Atomic Bomb—which took five years to research and write—I strove to describe as objectively as possible the work of the secret Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bombs during World War II, the rationale of using atomic bombs as weapons, and the consequences experienced by the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of my best and most somber experiences, then, was being invited during the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings in August 1995 not only to speak to the veterans and pioneers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the bombs were designed and assembled, but also to participate in the 50th annual memorial ceremony at Hiroshima. If both groups found my telling of their history acceptable, then I had achieved the goal I had set for myself.
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Writing "Living With the Bomb" was a revelation to me of how much the end of the Cold War changed the international situation where nuclear weapons are concerned. Hair-trigger and potentially apocalyptic as the Cold War nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union had been, its stability was enduring. The good news is that tens of thousands of nuclear weapons have been dismantled, whole classes of weapons eliminated from national arsenals. The bad news is that a second, diminished arms race has begun in the Middle East and East, with consequences yet unknown. My National Geographic assignment turned out to be a rewarding way to bring my understanding of the international challenges of nuclear weapons up to date.
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