Jim's Reviews > Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

Do you like spy thrillers? If so, this nonfiction sketch of the birth of the atomic bomb is the place to see where the modern ones were born. The accounts are barebones, often understated, but the outline is all there from trying to stop Hitler from building his own atomic bomb by destroying the heavy water plant in Norway (Norwegian resistance, gliders, & sabotage) to troubled scientists dealing with the morality of their works. There is also a sketch of the politics behind many of the decisions regarding the creation, use, & finally crazy proliferation of this WMD. How & why FDR started the program, Truman continued it, & Japan caved in due to it. The main scientists are covered;heroic Oppenheimer who was later screwed by the country he loved, the spies (Hall & Fuchs), Heisenberg, & many others.

The facts are all there & often in plenty of detail, but it never got boring. This is definitely an overview of the entire situation with a very brief summation bringing us to the present. It's not much on anyone's mind any more - not like the Cold War days when I was a student practicing hiding under my desk - but there are more atomic bombs now than there were then & they're in a lot more dangerous hands. It's mentioned that a 'small' war between Pakistan & India using a mere 80 bombs (Something less than 1%(?) of the bombs in the world.) could create a dust cloud that would disrupt agriculture over the entire earth for a decade. IOW, they're still a very clear & present danger.

I found this very interesting in light of several books I've read recently. A couple were old spy thrillers by Donald Hamilton, although he doesn't push the Commie scare typical of the period as hard as most. The other was King Rat which was about men in a Japanese POW camp. They feared they would be killed if Japan lost the war & likely would have been had the war been fought conventionally to its conclusion. By killing thousands of civilians in atomic fire, Japan's emperor was forced into accepting an unconditional surrender the military leaders probably never would have agreed to.

The book points out the tough moral questions. Oppenheimer wasn't thrilled with his baby, knew well that others could & would replicate it soon, so thought proliferation was stupid, but Truman disagreed. That eventually got Oppenheimer kicked to the curb with Hoover's boys hovering. Hall immediately saw the dangers of one country having such power & saw to it that the Soviets would also have it. Yes, he was an idealistic young man with a naive view of communism under Stalin & his ilk, but I'm not sure he was totally wrong. I can't say as I have any sympathy for Fuchs & the Rosenbergs certainly paid the heaviest price.

This particular genie is out of the bottle. We haven't dealt with it well, but better than we could have. In some ways it's made us grow up politically. The treaties on containing it, biological, & chemical weapons might not be worth a lot, but the thought is there. This book covers how we got there. Everyone should know the story & this is the best summation of the situation I've ever read.