Evening star., 1949-10-06
Remarks by Johnson
On Atom Blast Should
Interest Moscow
Little Purpose Now Seen
In Attempt to Minimize
Trumon's Announcement
By D9vid Laurence

0y A9Osd laurence
Either the American people
are BELIEVED to be gullible or high
officials think it is desirable to
mislead Them. There seems no
other explanation for the cryptic
remark which the Secretary OF
Defense. Louis johnson. made in
connecti9n with his testimony this
week before the Senate Appropri-
atoms Committee. He pointedly
remarked that the official an
nouncemeht by President Truman
did not say Russia had the
A-oomo but merely that there had
been anf"atomic explosion"
Just what purpose is to be
served now by endeavoring ap-
parentay to minimize the signifl-
canoe /of President Truman's an
nounqement is a mystery. After
all. Everybody in the top level OF
the military establishment who
was quoted at all was quick to
say last week that America has
expected all the time that Rus
siS would have the A-bomb that
II wasn't surprise, and that
There was no change of strategy
1eeded or planned.
I Now, just a week later, the i'm
{pression is officially disseminated
{that maybe the atomic eXplo-
sion" was just a bit of experiment
tation, implying that the United
States Government doesn't know
whether Russia has the A-bonb
Or not.
Interesting to Moscow.
This should be interesting news
to Moscow, where presumably 1t
had been hoped that Russia S
secret would be kept. Apparently,
If Secretary Johnson's statement
means anything, it is a confession
that President Truman really
didn't know whether Russia had
the A-bomb and that the use OF
the words atomic explosion" was
based on an uncertainty as to
what really had happened.
Eminent scientists, however, eX-
press no such doubt. Here, for in
stance, is what Dr.. R. E. Lapp,
formerly Director of the Atomic
Energy Committee of the National
Military tablishment, had to
say in an interview in United
States News & World Report:
do you think that Russia def
nitely has the A-bomb-that is,
she couldn't have made an explo-
sion without it?
Yes. that would follow.
docs it mean, also, that she
has the bomb in such shape that
she can explode it from an air.
plane, or merely that she can ex-
plode it?
1T would seem to me that If
she has the bomb and can eX-
plode it, she can also drop it from
a plane. There's no doubt about
it."
DR.. Lapp is one of the few men
in the world who has actually
handled A-bombs and partici-
pated in their manufacture as a
nuclear scientist. He also says in
struTlents do exist which are
capable of detecting an atomic
bomb at considerable distance"
Secrecy Ridiculed.
It will come as a surprise to
most people to learn that, even
inside the military establishment.
few persons have ever sen an
A-bomb or know how it is made
or what the ingredients are. Sc
crecy has been carried to the ri
diculous>extent that even military
officers who are supposed to de-
sign weapons to carry the A-bomb
have never seen an A-bomb.
So when Secretary johnson
says it was just an atomic explo-
sion," it may be doubted whether
he is speaking from f1rst-hand
knowledge or from any informa-
ton that can be regarded as any
more positive in one way than
that which Dr.. Lapp and others
have indicated.
There are doubts, of course, as
to how many A-bombs Russia can
get into a stockpile in a given
time. But whether Russia has
made an A-bomb is something
that isn't doubted now by Ameri-
can scientists, who think Russian
scientists are we'll able to make it
1t appears to have been met with
official skepticism only in quar-
ters where it is sought to culti-
vate the impression publicly thai
there is no need for concern ano
that an omniscient staff in the
military establishment has all the
answers.
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Ill uaH. 49,. unu nu--- III