Why Use Atom Bombs on Civilans Barely 3wks after 1st Test Detonation?

a reply to: FredT

they only pretended to loose - so they could " escape" to teh hollow earth / moon // antarctica

delete the option that contradicts your delusion

some people really do claim to believe ^ crap

By mid '45 Los Alamos had only managed to refine enough Uranium for 1 bomb using 'bullet' technology they were sure would be successful. The Plutonium bomb was theory they were uncertain of but enough Pu had been amassed to make cores for 3 implosion type bombs. One was used in the Trinity test to see if it actually worked which it did, one was sent off to Tinian with the Uranium bomb and the 3rd was unused (Japan surrendered after the Nagasaki attack). That last Pu core became the notorious 'demon core' after it was involved in a couple of lab accidents which claimed some lives due to radiation exposure.

Big stupid boys playing with their big stupid toys.

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
Big stupid boys playing with their big stupid toys.

It wasn't a game.

What a daft, sexist, and asinine statement.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Toys?

Anything but.

J. Robert Oppenheimer said the following...in regards to the new "toy". "I am become death, destroyer of world." Yeah, proof positive he and the other scientists viewed the bomb as a "toy".

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: ladyinwaiting

Toys?

Anything but.

J. Robert Oppenheimer said the following...in regards to the new "toy". "I am become death, destroyer of worlds." Yeah, proof positive he and the other scientists viewed the bomb as a "toy".

Good job, Seagull, dropping that BS in its tracks. 👍🏻

He was haunted the rest of his life. Calling him a boy with a toy is the ultimate in ignorant.

The men who developed the bomb knew how grave their task was. It was world war, not a game of f'ing jacks.

a reply to: seagull

Sure, but look at how many carelessly done test's happened post war.
I think "boys and their toys" has some relevance..post war anyway.

a reply to: vonclod

Were the tests, by our standards, misguided? Yeah. By what we know today. The tests at Bikini, and other places in the Pacific by France--I don't rightly remember where Britain conducted theirs...--or the USSR in eastern Russia were. indeed, misguided, even foolhardy.

By the standards of that day and age? Less so. They simply did not know what they were dealing with.

But to equate it with "boys with toys"? No. It was not anything of the sort. It was in deadly ernest.

originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: seagull

Sure, but look at how many carelessly done test's happened post war.
I think "boys and their toys" has some relevance..post war anyway.

What I'm seeing in this thread is that people don't know their history. Klaus Fuchs helped jumpstart the Soviet bomb program, which meant the USSR developed atomic weapons way ahead of schedule.

In response to the Soviet Union's threat, the US was compelled to keep pace for its own protection. Our technological expertise exceeded our knowledge of exactly what we were dealing with, particularly with the development of the H-bomb.

Again, this wasn't some kind of playground game, although Teller, I think, was nuts. He was one man.

We understood the danger, but we were more fearful of being destroyed ourselves. The USSR was a real threat.

Apparently the uninformed think we should have rolled over and let our country and our national security be destroyed.

a reply to: Creep Thumper

Edward Teller was if not a complete nut, he was damned close...

Not someone I'd have had anywhere near atomic research, especially into weapons...but that's just me.

The Manhatten Project was so infiltrated by Soviet moles...I'm somewhat surprised that the Sovs didn't beat us to the bomb.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Creep Thumper

Edward Teller was if not a complete nut, he was damned close...

Not someone I'd have had anywhere near atomic research, especially into weapons...but that's just me.

The Manhatten Project was so infiltrated by Soviet moles...I'm somewhat surprised that the Sovs didn't beat us to the bomb.

Trust me, he was nuts.

You are correct about the MP having been infiltrated. I cited Fuchs because he was the most deeply embedded. His material is cited as the most valuable to the USSR's program.

👍

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Creep Thumper

Edward Teller was if not a complete nut, he was damned close...

Nice guy! I had an opportunity to spend some time with him during a visit to Lawrence Livermore. My dad an civil engineer in the navy was one of the few cleared to do things knew him and he offered to watch me while my dad went off to check something I could not go in.

We sat in the cafeteria and talked about baseball and my Eagle Scout project. As I said, Nice guy.

The line between a true genius and a crazy person is a fine line. I prefer to view him as uncompromising and he was a disruptor of sorts similar to how Steven Jobs was.

One of the reasons they put him at LLNL is that he did not play well with others LOL. My 2 favorite Teller story is him going to the UC Berkley Seismology Department and waiting in the basement watching the seismograph to see if the Ivy Mike shot had worked, or the storied of him covering himself in suntan lotion to protect himself from the Trinity blast LOL