Atoms for Peace and War, 1953-1961

Atoms for Peace and War, 1953-1961

Author: Richard G. Hewlett

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-09-01

Total Pages: 742

ISBN-13: 0520329368

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This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.


The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project

Author: Francis George Gosling

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 75

ISBN-13: 0788178806

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A history of the origins and development of the American atomic bomb program during WWII. Begins with the scientific developments of the pre-war years. Details the role of the U.S. government in conducting a secret, nationwide enterprise that took science from the laboratory and into combat with an entirely new type of weapon. Concludes with a discussion of the immediate postwar period, the debate over the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, and the founding of the Atomic Energy Commission. Chapters: the Einstein letter; physics background, 1919-1939; early government support; the atomic bomb and American strategy; and the Manhattan district in peacetime. Illustrated.


History of Science in United States

History of Science in United States

Author: Marc Rothenberg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 637

ISBN-13: 1135583188

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This Encyclopedia examines all aspects of the history of science in the United States, with a special emphasis placed on the historiography of science in America. It can be used by students, general readers, scientists, or anyone interested in the facts relating to the development of science in the United States. Special emphasis is placed in the history of medicine and technology and on the relationship between science and technology and science and medicine.


Defense's Nuclear Agency 1947-1997 (DTRA History Series)

Defense's Nuclear Agency 1947-1997 (DTRA History Series)

Author: Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Publisher: Militarybookshop.CompanyUK

Published: 2003-09

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13:

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This official history was originally printed in very small numbers in 2002. "Defense's Nuclear Agency, 1947-1997" traces the development of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), and its descendant government organizations, from its original founding in 1947 to 1997. After the disestablishment of the Manhattan Engineering District (MED) in 1947, AFSWP was formed to provide military training in nuclear weapons' operations. Over the years, its sequential descendant organizations have been the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) from 1959 to 1971, the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) from 1971 to 1996, and the Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, DSWA, the On-Site Inspection Agency, the Defense Technology Security Administration, and selected elements of the Office of Secretary of Defense were combined to form the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).


Atomic Audit

Atomic Audit

Author: Stephen I. Schwartz

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2011-12-01

Total Pages: 750

ISBN-13: 9780815722946

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Since 1945, the United States has manufactured and deployed more than 70,000 nuclear weapons to deter and if necessary fight a nuclear war. Some observers believe the absence of a third world war confirms that these weapons were a prudent and cost-effective response to the uncertainty and fear surrounding the Soviet Union's military and political ambitions during the cold war. As early as 1950, nuclear weapons were considered relatively inexpensive— providing "a bigger bang for a buck"—and were thoroughly integrated into U.S. forces on that basis. Yet this assumption was never validated. Indeed, for more than fifty years scant attention has been paid to the enormous costs of this effort—more than $5 trillion thus far—and its short and long-term consequences for the nation. Based on four years of extensive research, Atomic Audit is the first book to document the comprehensive costs of U.S. nuclear weapons, assembling for the first time anywhere the actual and estimated expenditures for the program since its creation in 1940. The authors provide a unique perspective on U.S. nuclear policy and nuclear weapons, tracking their development from the Manhattan Project of World War II to the present day and assessing each aspect of the program, including research, development, testing, and production; deployment; command, control, communications, and intelligence; and defensive measures. They also examine the costs of dismantling nuclear weapons, the management and disposal of large quantities of toxic and radioactive wastes left over from their production, compensation for persons harmed by nuclear weapons activities, nuclear secrecy, and the economic implications of nuclear deterrence. Utilizing archival and newly declassified government documents and data, this richly documented book demonstrates how a variety of factors—the open-ended nature of nuclear deterrence, faulty assumptions about the cost-effectiveness of nuclear weapons, regular misrepresentati


Sharing Nuclear Secrets

Sharing Nuclear Secrets

Author: John Baylis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-06-27

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0198875118

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Nuclear alliances are high stakes partnerships with the potential to enhance security, goodwill, scientific and technical innovation, and economic well-being; or, they risk a state's very existence, generate social and political unrest, and fracture frameworks for international cooperation and jeopardize global reputations. Now entering its eighth decade, the Anglo-American nuclear alliance is the oldest and most complex in the world. Sharing Nuclear Secrets is the first comprehensive single-volume study of the Anglo-American nuclear relationship, illuminating both its fragility and durability. It has waxed and waned based on the preferences of presidents and prime ministers, weathered war scares, overcome isolationist impulses and imperial decline, persisted despite public antipathy, and has survived and been strengthened by scientific rivalries. Trust and ambiguity are entangled at the core of the Anglo-American nuclear relationship. The interplay between trust and ambiguity has influenced the way the nuclear partnership has been institutionalized at bureaucratic and technical levels, but also the ways in which political actors and private citizens have maintained the relationship through periods of crisis, moments of triumph, and through decades of cultural reckoning with nuclear weapons. From the days of the Manhattan Project, through the crisis of Suez and criticism of Dr. Strangelove, to the end of the Cold War, and into present day circumstances brought about by the JCPOA, AUKUS, and Russian nuclear threats over Ukraine, Sharing Nuclear Secrets reveals that ambiguity is key to keeping the balance between sentiment and interests and the corresponding equilibrium between trust and mistrust in the special relationship.


Fermilab

Fermilab

Author: Lillian Hoddeson

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-08-01

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 0226346250

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Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. Fermilab is the first history of this laboratory and of its powerful accelerators told from the point of view of the people who built and used them for scientific discovery. Focusing on the first two decades of research at Fermilab, during the tenure of the laboratory’s charismatic first two directors, Robert R. Wilson and Leon M. Lederman, the book traces the rise of what they call “megascience,” the collaborative struggle to conduct large-scale international experiments in a climate of limited federal funding. In the midst of this new climate, Fermilab illuminates the growth of the modern research laboratory during the Cold War and captures the drama of human exploration at the cutting edge of science.


Autumn of Our Discontent

Autumn of Our Discontent

Author: John Curatola

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2022-06-15

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1682476219

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In the Fall of 1949, a series of international events shattered the notion that the United States would return to its traditional small peacetime military posture following World War II. Autumn of our Discontent chronicles the events that triggered the wholesale review of United States national security policies. The review led to the adoption of recommendations advanced in NSC-68, which laid the foundation for America’s Cold War activities, expanded conventional forces, sparked a thermonuclear arms race, and, equally important to the modern age, established the national security state—all clear breaks from America’s martial past and cornerstone ideologies. In keeping with the American military tradition, the United States dismantled most of its military power following World War II while Americans, in general, enjoyed unprecedented post-war and peacetime prosperity. In the autumn of 1949, however, the Soviet’s first successful test of their own atomic weapon in August was followed closely by establishment of the communist People’s Republic of China on October 1st shattered the illusion that American hegemony would remain unchallenged. Combined with the decision at home to increase the size of the atomic stockpile on and the on-going debate regarding the “Revolt of the Admirals,” the United States found itself facing a new round of crisis in what became the Cold War. Curatola explores these events and the debates surrounding them to provide a detailed history of an era critical to our own modern age. Indeed, the security state conceived of in the events of this critical autumn and the legacy of the choices made by American policymakers and military leaders continue to this day.


Sources of Weapon Systems Innovation in the Department of Defense

Sources of Weapon Systems Innovation in the Department of Defense

Author: Thomas C. Lassman

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1437914977

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Contents: (1) Intro.: The Sources of Weapon Systems Innovation; (2) R&D in the Army: Changing Institutional Patterns of Army R& D after World War II; The Content of R&D in the Arsenal System; The Decline of the Arsenal System; (3) R&D in the Navy: Bureau of Ordnance; Bureau of Aeronautics; Bureau of Ships; From Bureaus and Laboratories to System Commands and Research Centers; (4) R&D in the Air Force: From Army Air Corps to U.S. Air Force, 1907-1950; Growth and Diversification: The Air Research and Development Command, 1950-1961; Reintegration: R&D in the Air Force Systems Command, 1961-1991; Coming Full Circle: Patterns of Organizational Change in Air Force R&D Since 1945; (5) Review and Retrospect. Biblio.