Prophets of doom or voices of sanity? The evolving discourse of annihilation in the first decade and a half of the nuclear age
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14623520701528940
ISSN1469-9494
Autores Tópico(s)Nuclear Issues and Defense
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 See, for example, Paul Boyer, By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age (New York: Pantheon, 1985); Spencer R. Weart, Nuclear Fear: A History of Images (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988); Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1955); Gerard J. DeGroot, The Bomb: A Life (London: Pimlico, 2005); Allan M. Winkler, Life under a Cloud: American Anxiety about the Atom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Margot A. Henriksen, Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). 2 For insight into this seeming public indifference or "numbing" to the threat of nuclear annihilation, see the writings of Robert Jay Lifton, especially Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003 [reprint edition]), The Broken Connection (New York: Basic, 1979), with Eric Markusen, The Genocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and Nuclear Threat (New York: Basic, 1990), and, with Richard Falk, Indefensible Weapons (New York: Basic, 1982). For the best overviews of the anti-nuclear movement, see the first two volumes of Lawrence S. Wittner's trilogy, One World or None: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement through 1953 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), and Lawrence S. Wittner, Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement 1954–1970 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997). 3 Paul Brians, Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895–1984 (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1987), p 4. 4 Ernest Lindley, "New weapons: science and total war," Washington Post, July 12, 1944, p 7. 5 Nuel Pharr Davis, Lawrence & Oppenheimer (New York: Da Capo, 1968), p 142. 6 Arthur Holly Compton, Atomic Quest: A Personal Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), pp 128–129. 7 Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), p 188. 8 Davis, Lawrence, p 130. 9 Compton, Atomic Quest, p 128. 10 James G. Hershberg, James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), p 232. 11 Lifton and Markusen, Genocidal, p 61. 12 Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima, p 15. 13 William L. Laurence, Dawn over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb (London: Museum Press York, 1947), p 194. 14 "Notes on the Interim Committee Meeting, May 31, 1945," in Martin J. Sherwin, A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and the Origins of the Arms Race (New York: Vintage, 1987), pp 297–298. 15 Henry L. Stimson diaries, May 31, 1945, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 16 Harry S. Truman, 1945: Memoirs: 1945 Year of Decisions, Vol 1 (New York: New American Library, 1955), p 21. 17 Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), pp 634–635. 18 Harry S. Truman, "Why I dropped the bomb," Parade, December 4, 1988. Bart Bernstein, who brought this article to my attention, cautions that Margaret Truman's editing may have influenced the wording. 19 Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (New York: Harper and Row, 1980), p 55. 20 For the full report, see Alice Kimball Smith, A Peril and a Hope: The Scientists' Movement in America: 1945–47 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), pp 560–572. 21 Text of petition in Robert C. Williams and Philip L. Cantelon, eds, The American Atom: A Documentary History of Nuclear Policies from the Discovery of Fission to the Present 1939–1984 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), p 67. 22 Donald Porter Geddes, ed., The Atomic Age Opens (Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1945), p 159. 23 Boyer, By the Bomb's, pp 5–7. 24 Geddes, ed., The Atomic Age, pp 164, 167. 25 "Everyman," New York Times, August 18, 1945, p 10; Lee Shippey, "Leeside," Los Angeles Times, August 25, 1945, p 4. 26 "Last judgment," Washington Post, August 8, 1945, p 4B. 27 Boyer, By the Bomb's, p 15. 28 Henry DeWolf Smyth, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: The Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940–1945 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945), pp 223, 226. 29 Hanson W. Baldwin, "A full re-study of our national defense needed," New York Times, August 13, 1945, p 9. 30 Vincent Starrett, "Books alive," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 2, 1945, p D10. 31 "Oxnam, Dulles ask halt in bomb use," New York Times, August 10, 1945, p 6. 32 George Gallup, "World explosion by misuse of atom feared," Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1945, p 4. 33 P. J. S., "World alliance asked in face of atom race," Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1945, p B4. 34 "Topics of the Times," November 20, 1945, p 20. 35 Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, p 330. 36 John Morton Blum, ed., The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace 1942–1946 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), p 496. 37 Oppenheimer, "The new weapon: the turn of the screw," p 22; Urey, "How does it all add up?"; The Federation of American (Atomic) Scientists, "Survival is at stake," all in Dexter Masters and Katharine Way, eds, One World or None: A Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Whittlesey House, 1946). 38 Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960), p 376. 39 Ibid, p 407. 40 Ibid, p 421. 41 Albert Einstein to F. F. Fletcher, January 28, 1948, in Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, p 466. 42 Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, pp 482–483. 43 Albert Einstein to Alton R. F. Chapple, February 18, 1949, in Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, p 510. 44 Blum, ed., The Price of Vision, pp 482–484. 45 Arthur Compton to Henry A. Wallace, September 27, 1945. Copy in Arthur Compton Papers, Washington University in St. Louis Archives. I am grateful to Daniel Ellsberg for bringing this document to my attention. 46 Blum, ed., The Price of Vision, p 630. 47 Lewis Mumford, "Gentlemen: you are mad!," Saturday Review of Literature, Vol 29, March 2, 1946, p 5. 48 Waldemar Kaemppfert, "Science in review: biologists considering the future of man question whether the race can survive," New York Times, January 12, 1947, p E9. 49 Roy Gibbons, "Warns A-bomb cell action can wipe out race," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1947, p 10. 50 Boyer, By the Bomb's, p 292. 51 Vannevar Bush, Modern Arms and Free Men: A Discussion of the Role of Science in Preserving Democracy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949), p 91. 52 George Gallup, "Russ A-bomb no surprise to public, poll discloses," Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1949, p 6. 53 "Extinction of race held peril in atomic world," Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1949, p 1. 54 "Romulo stressed atom bomb check," New York Times, November 12, 1949, p 7. 55 Priscilla J. McMillan, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race (New York: Viking, 2005), p 24. 56 David E. Lilinethal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, Vol. II: The Atomic Energy Years 1945–1950 (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), p 582. 57 James B. Conant, Hartley Rowe, Cyril Stanley Smith, L. A. DuBridge, Oliver E. Buckley and J. R. Oppenheimer to David Lilienthal, October 30, 1949, in Robert C. Williams and Philip L. Cantelon, eds, The American Atom: A Documentary History of Nuclear Policies from the Discovery of Fission to the Present 1939–1984 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1984), pp 125–126. 58 E. Fermi and I. I. Rabi, "An opinion on the development of the 'super'," October 30, 1949, in Williams and Cantelon, eds, The American Atom, p 127. 59 Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima, p 174. 60 William L. Laurence, "Build new bombs, Urey asserts," New York Times, January 28, 1950, p 6. 61 Washington Post, February 6, 1950, p 2. 62 "Text of statement," New York Times, February 5, 1950, p 3. 63 Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, p 521. 64 McMillan, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer, p 69. 65 William L. Laurence, "Ending of all life by hydrogen bomb held a possibility," New York Times, February 27, 1950, p 1; Hans Bethe, Harrison Brown, Frederick Seitz and Leo Szilard, "The facts about the hydrogen bomb," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 1950, pp 107–108. 66 "Lilienthal scores 'world end' talk," New York Times, March 2, 1950, p 11; William L. Laurence, "Lilienthal raps annihilation talk," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1950, p 39. 67 Waldemar Kaempffert, "Science in review: could a hydrogen-cobalt bomb be made big enough to destroy the human race," New York Times, October 29, 1950, p 141. 68 George Gallup, "Public thinks war won't destroy all," Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1950, p 14. 69 Waldemar Kaempffert, "Science in review," p 141; "Bomb that would kill all humans possible to make, scientist says," Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1950, p 1. 70 Alfred Friendly, "Scientist says 'H-bomb' could be made to kill 'only a majority' of human race," Washington Post, October 18, 1950, p 19. 71 Kaempffert, "Science in review," p 69. 72 Edmund C. Berkeley, "We are safer than we think," New York Times, July 29, 1951, pp 11, 20. 73 McMillan, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer, pp 141–142. 74 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid = 14379 75 Robert K. Plumb, "Science in review: 'unforeseeable peaks' of atomic power are dimly forecast by the hydrogen bomb," New York Times, January 11, 1953, p E9. 76 "Text of Eisenhower inaugural address pledging search for peace," New York Times, January 21, 1953, p 19. 77 Joseph and Steward Alsop, "H-bomb: question with no answer," Washington Post, February 2, 1953, p 6. 78 George Gallup, "Fifth of U.S. blank on H-bomb," Washington Post, February 15, 1953, p B5. 79 George Gallup, "World atom rule favored 6–3," Washington Post, May 24, 1953, p B5. 80 "Getting pretty close to home," Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1953, p 4. 81 "Call for solidarity," New York Times, April 21, 1953, p 26. 82 "The central problem," New York Times, September 19, 1953, p 14. 83 "British bar Americans from A-tests," Washington Post, September 9, 1953, p 20. 84 Lloyd Norman, "Pentagon puts chill on new cobalt bomb," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 13, 1953, p 14. 85 "U.S. scientist tells deadly 'A-dust bomb," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1953, p 2, "Fantastic new weapon disclose by scientist: 'dust bomb' might wipe out nation, AEC professor says," Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1953, p 1. 86 "POW reveals Reds' fear of 'duster bomb,'" Chicago Daily Tribune, September 15, 1953, p 12; "Flier tells of Red curiosity over alleged U.S. 'dust bomb,'" Washington Post, September 15, 1953, p 5. 87 "British shrug off report of Soviet C-bomb," Chicago Daily Tribune, December 21, 1953, p 4. 88 "C-bomb could end mankind, scientists says," Los Angeles Times, December 27, 1953, p 16. 89 Joseph and Stewart Alsop, "Matter of fact … Operation Candor," Washington Post, September 9, 1953, p 13. 90 "Can't happen here," Washington Post, September 27, 1953, p B4. 91 George Gallup, "Poll favors less secrecy on H-bomb," Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1953, p 31. 92 Hanson W. Baldwin, "Morale the big issue," New York Times, January 5, 1954, p 18. 93 "Bunche of U.N. urges study on problems of colonialism," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 10, 1954, p 4. 94 "Mayor pledges parents a hearing before filling school board posts," New York Times, December 12, 1954, p 54. 95 William Henry Chamberlin, "The new strategy," New York Times, March 22, 1954, p 10. 96 "Text of Stevenson speech assailing G.O.P. on foreign policy," New York Times, October 17, 1954, p 58. 97 "Aggressor's odds held wiped out," New York Times, March 4, 1954, p 23. 98 William Laurence, "Now most dreaded weapon, cobalt bomb, can be built," New York Times, April 7, 1954, p 4. 99 "Russ reported making deadly nitrogen bomb," Los Angeles Times, April 9, 1954, p 1. 100 "H-bomb as a deterrent," Washington Post, April 11, 1954, p B4. 101 "Cobalt bomb declared unpractical as weapon," Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1954, p 8; "Cobalt bomb use in war scouted," New York Times, April 12, 1954, p 16. 102 Joseph and Stewart Alsop, "Cheerful note: some will live," Washington Post, April 18, 1954, p B5. 103 "Dozens faint at sermon by Billy Graham," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 17, 1954, p 6. 104 Drew Pearson, "Washington merry-go-round: Bricker torn by 'love,' 'hate,'" Washington Post, April 27, 1954, p 39. 105 "Diversion from war," Washington Post, June 13, 1954, p B4. 106 "India arms freeze proposal shelved," Washington Post, October 27, 1954, p 4. 107 "Cobalt bomb's peril to all life stressed," Washington Post, February 14, 1955, p 2. 108 "End of world seen with a cobalt bomb," New York Times, February 21, 1955, p 12. 109 John MacCormac, "Scientist labels H-bomb as 'crazy,'" New York Times, May 14, 1954, p 5. 110 "Scientist suggest world suicide plot thru use of C-bomb," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 29, 1955, p 4. 111 William L. Laurence, "Teller forecasts atomic surprise," New York Times, February 25, 1955, p 11. 112 "Industrial dispersal," Wall Street Journal, February 25, 1955, p 8. 113 Edwin Diamond, "Blast report bares superbomb's might," Washington Post, March 6, 1955, p 1. 114 "Scientist tells of super bomb blast in ocean," Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1955, p 1; "Physicist warns on 'fall-out' war," New York Times, May 21, 1955, p 7. 115 George Gallup, "Only 17% know about atom fallout, poll finds," Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1955, p 22. 116 Warren Unna, "Let leaders see H-test, Murray says," Washington Post, May 8, 1955, p 13. 117 Initial reports mentioned only nine signers because Russell inadvertently forgot to mention Max Born at the news conference and Linus Pauling added his name later. Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, Vol III (London: Little, Brown, 1969), p. 99. 118 Bertrand Russell to Albert Einstein, February 11, 1955, in Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, pp 623–625. 119 Albert Einstein to Bertrand Russell, February 16, 1955, p 626. 120 Peter D. Whitney, "Nine noted scientists urge war ban," New York Times, July 10, 1955, p 1. 121 "Texts of appeal by noted scientists for abolition of war," New York Times, July 10, 1955, p 25. 122 Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, p 681. 123 "As members of a species," New York Times, July 11, 1955, p 22. 124 William L. Laurence, "The H-bomb danger: an analysis of scientists' warning finds it is old and omits much," New York Times, July 10, 1955, p 24. 125 Drew Pearson, "Washington merry-go-round: Big 4 could draw lesson from Swiss," Washington Post, July 22, 1955, p 53; Thomas P. Ronan, "Eden bases hopes on perseverance," New York Times, July 16, 1955, p 3. 126 Walter H. Waggoner, "U.N. unit planning atom peril study," New York Times, July 12, 1955, p 5. 127 Waldemar Kaempffert, "Science in review: facts on perils of atomic war are needed to substantiate many warnings," New York Times, July 17, 1955, p E9. 128 Nathan and Norden, eds, Einstein on Peace, p 681. 129 Elton C. Fay, "A bomb is 10 years old," Washington Post, July 10, 1955, p E3. 130 "Texts of Murray's talk of H-bomb at Fordham Fete and A.E.C. statement," New York Times, November 18, 1955, p 12; "Display might of an H-bomb, AEC boss says," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 18, 1955, p 7. 131 "Protest to Ike over Dulles' step to the brink," Chicago Daily Tribune, January 29, 1956, p 16. 132 W. F. Vandercook, "Making the very best of the very worst: the 'human effects of nuclear weapons' report of 1956," International Security, Vol 11, 1986, pp 184–185. 133 "Pope warns mankind on arms race," Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1956, p 1. 134 George Gallup, "Public weighs horror of nuclear warfare," Washington Post, July 15, 1956, p B8. 135 "Text of Stevenson's address in Seattle on the uses of nuclear energy for peace," New York Times, October 10, 1956, p 33; Warren Unna, "Atoms and politics," Washington Post, October 10, 1956, p 19. 136 Estes Kefauver, untitled article, Washington Post, November 6, 1956, p B9. 137 Chesly Manly, "Adlai tosses Hodge case at Republicans," Chicago Daily Tribune, October 27, 1956, p 5. 138 George Gallup, "Public backs end of H-bomb tests," Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1957, p 28. 139 "Excerpts from message by Schweitzer," New York Times, April 24, 1957, p 4; "Schweitzer urges world opinion to demand end of nuclear tests," New York Times, April 24, 1957, p 1. 140 George Gallup, "Public favors H-tests' halt, if—," Washington Post, May 19, 1957, p E5. 141 Gallup, "Public backs end of H-bomb tests," p 28. 142 "Dr. Davies hits secrecy on fallout," Washington Post and Times Herald, May 27, 1957, p B3. 143 Henry R. Lieberman, "Nehru again asks end of bomb tests," New York Times, May 18, 1957, p 2. 144 "Focus on atoms," New York Times, May 19, 1957, p E1. 145 Earle P. Brown, "The facing of certain death," Washington Post and Times Herald, July 28, 1957, p E6. 146 "On the Beach," Washington Post, September 15, 1957, p E1. 147 "Human rights," Washington Post, December 10, 1957, p 14. 148 Joseph Alsop, "Matter of fact … room on a river," Washington Post, February 19, 1958, p 15. 149 Walter Trohan, "Great truths seen as force over calamity," Chicago Daily Tribune, December 28, 1958, p 7. 150 "Damage to half of U.S. homes seen in a war," Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1959, p 8. 151 "Assessing the risk," Washington Post, June 25, 1959, p 20; Willard Edwards, "Put on 2D act of space age horror drama," Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1959, p 13; "48.9 million U.S. death toll seen in H-war," Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1958, p 8. 152 C. P. Trussell, "Toll of 50 million pictured in an atom attack on U.S.," New York Times, August 31, 1959, p 1. 153 Advertisement, New York Times, October 28, 1959, p 10. 154 Richard L. Coe, "One on the aisle: badly built summer place," Washington Post, November 27, 1959, p B14. 155 Murray Schumach, "'On the Beach' includes Moscow in 18-city premiere on Dec. 17," New York Times, November 30, 1959, p 27. 156 Richard L. Coe, "One on the aisle: Ford gives nod to actors," Washington Post, December 1, 1959, p C6. 157 Schumach, "On the Beach," p 27. 158 "Topics," New York Times, December 17, 1959, p 36. 159 Bosley Crowther, "Screen: On the Beach," New York Times, December 18, 1959, p 34. 160 Bosley Crowther, "End of the world?," New York Times, December 20, 1959, p X3. 161 One of the difficulties anti-nuclear activists had in conveying the threat of annihilation is the dearth of visual images associated with extinction. While images of nuclear war abound—the mushroom cloud being the most ubiquitous for the victors and the long lines of burned and disfigured ghostlike sufferers walking half-naked, arms outstretched through a veritable inferno for the victims—images identifying a completely lifeless, post-apocalyptic planet are less identifiable, making it more difficult to comprehend absolute nuclear annihilation. As Robert Lifton has shown, the randomness and senselessness of nuclear extermination differentiates it from the religious imagery of Armageddon, even nuclear Armageddon, in which destruction leads to rebirth, a process also embodied in the alchemical transmutation masterfully described by Spencer Weart. There is nothing redemptive in human self-destruction through nuclear war. An early version of such end-of-the-world images can be seen in the cosmological debates connecting heat death and the expanding universe that undergirded the existential crisis of 1929–30. Popular British astronomers Arthur Eddington and James Jeans, who influenced important American thinkers like Joseph Wood Krutch and Walter Lippmann, envisioned a cold, barren, lifeless planet orbiting aimlessly through eternity. The difficulty of portraying nuclear extinction beyond the point at which life and consciousness have ended was apparent in On the Beach. Some criticized Stanley Kramer for showing no corpses in San Francisco or in the final shots of downtown Melbourne, where, all human life having been extinguished, garbage blows through empty streets and the banner reading "There is still time … brother" flies. See Robert Jay Lifton, "The image of 'the end of the world': a psychohistorical view," Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol 24, 1985, pp 70–90; Lifton, Broken Connection, especially Chapters 22 and 23; Weart, Nuclear Fear, p 1; Ira Chernus, Nuclear Madness: Religion and the Psychology of the Nuclear Age (Albany: State of New York University Press, 1991); James Jeans, The Mysterious Universe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930); Arthur Eddington, The Expanding Universe (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1933); Joseph Wood Krutch, The Modern Temper: A Study and a Confession (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1929); Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Morals (New York: Macmillan, 1929).
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