Neutron bomb inventor Samuel Cohen dies in LA

Neutron bomb inventor Samuel Cohen dies in LA

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"If we are going to go on fighting these damned fool wars in the future, shelling and bombing cities to smithereens and wrecking the lives of their inhabitants," he wrote, "might there be some kind of nuclear weapon that could avoid all this?"

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Guess we will watch them fall one by one. Though Mr. Cohen was brilliant in his own right, I still suspect he had regret's as Einstein and Oppenheimer did over the invention of such dreadful and destructive war horses.
Let's hope the next generation will even be more considerate to the peoples of such atrocities and devastation.
I don't know what else to say....

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Biography of Samuel Cohen

Very interesting people he had dealt with over the invention of such a device, even the pope supported his ingenious ideas with the neutron bomb theory's:

Alleged support from the Pope for low yield tactical nuclear bombs

Cohen reportedly worked in France on low-yield, highly discriminate tactical nuclear weapons in 1979-80.[3] He claimed that he was awarded a medal by Pope John Paul II in 1979 for his bid to reform modern warfare.[4] Author Charles Platt reported in a 2005 profile of Sam Cohen that "...he showed me the Medal of Peace that he had received from the Pope in 1979."[5]

At the time, Warsaw Pact forces had a massive tank superiority in Europe (though NATO maintained an overall strategic superiority); the Christian Science Monitor reported in 1981 that there were "19,500 tanks in the Soviet-controlled forces of the Warsaw Pact aimed at Western Europe. Of these, 12,500 are Soviet tanks in Soviet units. NATO has 7,000 tanks on its side facing the 19,500."[6] A deterrent which was designed to minimise civilian casualties was a step away from the risk of indiscriminate warfare. The neutron bomb's killing by neutron radiation is different from the fallout of a normal high yield thermonuclear weapon because it can be controlled more precisely, restricted to military targets and kept away from civilians.[citation needed]
The speed of modern warfare meant that the civilian population would be unlikely to be able to withdraw from combat zones and would suffer a large number of deaths in a nuclear war where the blast yields and fallout were significant. Because neutron bombs do not produce the indiscriminate blast (only 40 kilopascals at ground zero from a 1 kt blast yield detonation at 500 m altitude, and only 7 kPa at 2 km distance), heat and fallout damage of other nuclear weapons, they were more credible as a deterrent to Soviet tanks. However, many people believed that the very deployment of the neutron bomb threatened an escalation to full scale nuclear retaliation, thus canceling out the supposed benefits. Advances in precision anti-tank weapons ultimately made the neutron bomb redundant tactically in its original objective. The debate over "clean" low yield nuclear weapons continues with earth penetrator technology ("nuclear bunker busters").

From source posted above.....

Good post and a good man.

I remember back when I had first heard of the N-Bomb. I had just joined the Army. lol.

I still remember talking about the concept with people. Kind of makes one feel useless-in the big picture.

I find it interesting that the topic died out fairly quickly. I have to go with the belief the bomb was never prefected-at least on a large scale. If it had, most of us wouldn't be here.

S&F

reply to post by anon72


One thing that does weigh in my thoughts is "Was there more he had in mind for tactical low nuclear emissions payloads for weapon's and/or for other alternative applications?"
Tried to find out more too see if there was anything else he was interested in researching, but could find nothing relevant to the scenario being a factual assumption.
"Glad you liked the OP, it was a note worthy story in my book as well. Thanks!!

Originally posted by anon72
Good post and a good man.

I remember back when I had first heard of the N-Bomb. I had just joined the Army. lol.

I still remember talking about the concept with people. Kind of makes one feel useless-in the big picture.

I find it interesting that the topic died out fairly quickly. I have to go with the belief the bomb was never prefected-at least on a large scale. If it had, most of us wouldn't be here.

S&F

I don't think it had to be perfected, some claim the Neutron weapon was enough to convince the Soviets that a conventional or nuclear showdown was unwinnable and the US had trumped them...