One of our most brilliant minds just passed.

Rest in Peace George Cowan.

George Cowan, a leader in the Manhattan Project, has passed. While many of you may not like him, he made a great deal of progress in science. Let us remember him. If you haven't heard of him, now you have.

George Cowan

reply to post by ventian


Jarring to hear the news. He was my mom's boss in Los Alamos when I was in high school. He was mostly known to me as the guy with the impossibly glamorous car (a BMW 2000 of some flavor?) such as one rarely saw in New Mexico. And the classmate son determined to become a surgeon, which he has done.

Whew! I thought you were referring to Phage when I read the title. RIP George-you will be missed dearly

reply to post by ventian

yes thank you mr mass murderer.
your genius was much appreciated. thank you for helping us destroy thousands of civilians of an already defeated country.
what would we have done without the constant fear monger threat of a nuclear war.
classy guy.

reply to post by CharonIncarnate


Of course, let's blame him for the decisions and policies made by the government entities that signed his pay check. Let's also forget that, when the project was started, the Pacific Fleet was in ruins, Britain was Hitler's whim from being taken, and all statistical analysis of the involved nations pointed to a solid victory by the Axis.

It was due to exhaustive intelligence and counter-intelligence that we won World War II. Had Hitler been a little smarter and/or a little better informed - we would have lost, and God only knows what Europe would be, now. Had the Enterprise (the Big E) not been a floating miracle ship during her post-Midway campaign - Japan would be the East.

We tend to look with an unimaginable amount of hind-sight upon the actions taken during that time. We know it as the war where America kicked ass and became the super power leading what would become known as the Western societies. No one, up until the final year of the war, would have believed that outcome possible at the time.

Originally posted by Aim64C
reply to post by CharonIncarnate

 

Of course, let's blame him for the decisions and policies made by the government entities that signed his pay check. Let's also forget that, when the project was started, the Pacific Fleet was in ruins, Britain was Hitler's whim from being taken, and all statistical analysis of the involved nations pointed to a solid victory by the Axis.

It was due to exhaustive intelligence and counter-intelligence that we won World War II. Had Hitler been a little smarter and/or a little better informed - we would have lost, and God only knows what Europe would be, now. Had the Enterprise (the Big E) not been a floating miracle ship during her post-Midway campaign - Japan would be the East.

We tend to look with an unimaginable amount of hind-sight upon the actions taken during that time. We know it as the war where America kicked ass and became the super power leading what would become known as the Western societies. No one, up until the final year of the war, would have believed that outcome possible at the time.

BS !!

America was not even IN the war until Japan bombed Perl Harbor and then many say it was an inside job.. either way, facts are they could have destroyed Hawaii and it would have been no big deal to the Americans - Neither the Germans or the Japs would have taken America on American soil. We still could have stayed out of that conflict. But no, we stuck our nose in where it didn't belong once again. If we were going to use the bomb, don't you think we should have used it on Germany - after all, they started this whole mess.

We could not win a war we were not even involved in. We should have stayed out of it. Our meddling in where we didn't belong got thousands of our boys killed and millions of Japanese killed, taxed the resources we had at home for our own people. This is the definition of being really stupid and screwing up your whole country.

Originally posted by Aim64C
reply to post by CharonIncarnate

 

Of course, let's blame him for the decisions and policies made by the government entities that signed his pay check. Let's also forget that, when the project was started, the Pacific Fleet was in ruins, Britain was Hitler's whim from being taken, and all statistical analysis of the involved nations pointed to a solid victory by the Axis.

It was due to exhaustive intelligence and counter-intelligence that we won World War II.

Three things:

a) the cavity magnetron
b) Alan Turing & the code breakers
c) the insane will of the Soviet Army

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
Neither the Germans or the Japs would have taken America on American soil. We still could have stayed out of that conflict. But no, we stuck our nose in where it didn't belong once again. If we were going to use the bomb, don't you think we should have used it on Germany - after all, they started this whole mess.

Germany had surrendered by the time it was done, but yes the intent was for stopping Germany first.

We could not win a war we were not even involved in. We should have stayed out of it. Our meddling in where we didn't belong got thousands of our boys killed and millions of Japanese killed, taxed the resources we had at home for our own people. This is the definition of being really stupid and screwing up your whole country.

edit on 21-4-2012 by JohnPhoenix because: sp

Who was "meddling" in whom exactly? Compare world maps in 1935 vs 1941. What had changed?

Germany was working on long-range missiles. If the US had stayed out, i.e. no D-day invasion, and Britain forced to capitulate or cease-fire, meaning no strategic bombing, Germany would have had a nuclear weapon by 1946-1947. Two days later, London would be incinerated. An unrestrained Germany would have taken over Iceland (u-boats baby) and had missiles to hit the USA by 1950. Again, how long would NYC last in that situation? (i.e. Germany having strategic power over the USA and capable of inflicting tremendous damage with zero loss, and the USA having no power against Germany)

About a day.

Without nuclear weapons the Cold War would still have happened for all the East verses West political reasons, great conventional armies (with chemical and biological weapons as their WMD’s) would still have been formed, but they were more than likely to have been used since the consequences were at least survivable (to a world not unlike they left) for the political & military elite.
Given WW2 killed 50 million, given killing technology improved during the Cold War the chances are that nukes have already prevented the deaths of at least 50 millionEuropeans.

The best thing about nuclear weapons is they make war insane. Is it coincidence that the only countries we have wars with are the countries without them?
1. Saddam got rid of them = invasion afterwards (about a million dead from the subsequent conventional war, and tribal power fighting & terrorism)
2. Gaddafi got rid of them = war afterwards, tens of thousands dead in a country of only 6 million.
3. Iran please get rid of them = so we can turn you into another Iraq.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix

America was not even IN the war until Japan bombed Perl Harbor

This is quite untrue. The "Flying Tigers" were a volunteer squadron of P-40 pilots operating in China against Japanese forces. The U.S. had, also, been sending large amounts of supplies to Britain in the form of processed materials, arms, etc.

In fact - had it not been for Roosevelt's foresight on the issue of the brewing war in Europe - the U.S. would have not had the industrial capacity to levy the response it did. Think about it - we went from being Britain's red-headed step-child to being the tip of the spear for the Allied nations and fighting, literally, across the entire planet... all within the span of a year and a half.

and then many say it was an inside job.

That's a functionally retarded assertion.

ither way, facts are they could have destroyed Hawaii and it would have been no big deal to the Americans - Neither the Germans or the Japs would have taken America on American soil.

Again, you're looking at it from the perspective of someone who never saw Europe 'unified' under Nazi Germany - or Japan after it had solidified control of the Orient.

I am of the opinion that the Japanese would not have attempted to claim territory in mainland America - but they were actively pursuing methods of ensuring we couldn't meddle in their affairs (balloon bombs, and such - kind of interesting).

Nazi Germany, however.... had a political party that was on a mission to cleanse everything it could of individuals deemed inferior by their reasoning. It's difficult to say what they would have done after solidifying control of Europe.

But no, we stuck our nose in where it didn't belong once again.

There is a saying on this site... "They came for the Jews, and I didn't say anything, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't say anything, because I wasn't a Catholic... and then they came for me... and by then, there was no one left."

Or something along those lines and to that effect.

This is the definition of being really stupid and screwing up your whole country.

Says he who enjoys a computer built in China based on technologies developed for wartime purposes (the first applications of computers were in fire control radars for classes of ship like the Fletcher Destroyers, Iowa Battleships, etc).

Further - you presume that the act of not going to war was going to, somehow, preserve the lives of those lost. Japan was at war whether we were or not - their people were at risk, regardless of whether or not we participated. Further - Japan had already launched an attack on the U.S. with little warning - and there have been some reports that they, too, were working on nuclear weapons within the area of China and Korea... whose to say they wouldn't have dropped their own nuclear weapon on the naval port of San Diego in an attempt to keep us out of the Pacific? ... Or just gone with traditional strategic bombing campaigns?