Told Ya So!
Posted on 03/15/2021 5:27:46 PM PDT by ammodotcom
The United States of America can take pride in a number of things, among them arguably the two greatest cultural and scientific achievements of human history: The moon landing and atomic power. It is the latter that we will focus on in the article, the unleashing of the power of the atom, for good and for ill.
America was the first nation to split the atom and applied it immediately to the war effort. It was not for a lack of trying on the part of America’s rivals: Germany famously had their own nuclear program. Less well known is that the Empire of Japan was also looking for a way to weaponize the primal forces of nature.
But America got there first. And their ability to do so not only changed the course of the Second World War, it also changed the course of human history. For the first time ever, mankind has the ability to wipe away human life as we know it at the push of a button. On the other hand, we also have a clean, reliable fuel source that could outstrip all existing sources, if the political will were there.
This is the story of how America unleashed and harnessed the power of nuclear fission, for better or for worse.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammo.com ...
July 16 1945. There’s a good documentary called Trinity and Beyond. It’s narrated by one William Shatner.
Biggest mistake in history was allowing any other country to develop their own atomic weapons.
He also narratives Nukes in Space, and Welcome to Ground Zero. Atomcentral.com
Thanks for the additional references.
We actually watched Trinity and Beyond in tech school in the USAF.
Given the widespread penetration of Soviet agents in the US (remember we were allies in WW2) it was impossible to maintain the secrecy needed.
Dropping the bomb was the right thing to do. The Japanese are crazy and will do whatever their superiors ordered them to. Just look at what went into the mindset of the kamikaze pilots. Best educated elite university graduates were chosen. Yet we’re the bad guys. Go figure.
“Given the widespread penetration of Soviet agents in the US (remember we were allies in WW2) it was impossible to maintain the secrecy needed.”
It should have been enforced by force.
Your comment is not responsive. Technology taken from us or developed independently is beside the point.
The Manhattan Project was peak America. The can-do, kick-ass, un-woke country that did that is but a memory now.
Imagine 500,000 young American men dead in the invasion of Japan, probably some of our fathers and grandfather thus eliminating ourselves from existence. The loss of life in Japan from the two bombs was unfortunate, but it was them or us. Actually, it was us AND them, as countless Japanese lives were saved as a result of the war ending when it did. God bless Leslie Groves, Oppenheimer, Truman et al.
Yeah one of my hs teachers was a chaplain who survived the Bataan Death March, so I learned a bit about the Japanese.
That decision would have been way above my job code.
Patton wanted to go into Russia after the Germans were defeated.
I don’t know if that would have worked out or not.
The bomb was inevitable...once the physics was ironed out, it was only a matter of engineering. Who in their right mind would argue that it wasn’t best for the world that the US got there first?
My uncle died in the Bataan death March. Sad.
Heck, the Russian A-bomb program cost less, it was called Rosenberg.
And, as I recall, both the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death by electric chair.
Not all the moon landings and atomic power in the world can fix the stupid that attends to leftist doctrine.
Shouldn’t this article be in German?
Yes, Ethyl still glows, but Julius went out a while back.
C-SPAN 3 has run Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech from March 1946 a couple of times lately. In the course of the speech he comments on how fortunate it was that it was the US which first acquired the bomb. Of course at that time we still had a monopoly.
Told Ya So!
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