Evening star., 1950-07-16
The H-Bonb, the Kremiin and Crime

In its special report on the still theoretical
hydrogen bomb, the Senate House Committee
on Atomic Energy has made clear that the bombs
development is a possibility real enough, and
perhaps near enough, to lend particularly grim
emphasis to the worlds desperate need for an
international control system capable Of guard
ing against all such instruments of mass de-
struction
AS the report points out, the H-bomb as
envisioned in theory would involve the use of
deuterium ("heavy" hydrogen that can be pro-
duced rather easily. and/or tritium Ia radio
active type of "heavy" hydrogen that can be
manufactured in our nuclear reactors by subject
ing common lithium to neutron bombardment)
The fusion of the nuclei of either or both these
materials would release energy Of unprecedentedly
ghastly explosive force.
Before there could be such fusion, how
ever the deuterium and/or tritium would have
to be heated up" by temperature roughly
comparable to that obtaining in the center of
the sun or that generated by an atomic explosion
which is caused by the tission of uranium and
plutonium. Hence, the A-bomb would have to
be an integral part of the H-bomb-the trigger
or decorating mechanism that would make the
hydrogen material fuse into virtually unimag-
Unable release of destructive energy.
In and of themselves, of course, our, present.
day A-weapons-substantiall deadlier than the
ones that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki-are
awesome destroyers representing grisly revo-
lutionary advance over conventional explosives
Similarly, according to of the experts quoted
by the congressional committee, the H-bomb,
If it can be produced, will represent not less
revolutionary advance over the atomic bomb
1t may be-let us hope and pray so-that
man will find such weapon impossible to pro-
duce. Yet, as of today, the United States and the
Soviet Union are making special effort to bring
it into being. The responsibility for this race
in which we must strive to keep ahead for the
sake of our national survival-rests solely on
the men of the Kremlin.: They have deliberately
inflicted the thing upon the world by their per-
sistent refusal to cooperate in the atomic control
plan that has been adopted by all the other
members of the United Nations, excepting the
Soviet satellites.
That plan, with some revision, probably
would be effective enough to guard against the
H-bomb. But the Russian leaders, instead of
helping to put 1t into effect, want no part of it
and are trying to cover up their deadly sabotage
with such moves as their monstrously hypocritical
drive behind the so-caled Stockholm resolution"
or world peace appeal" This drive is designed
among other things, to get millions of unwilling
people in every country to affix their signatures
to the declaration that the first nation to use
A-weaponS shouldhe branded as war criminal
propaganda stunt obviously aimed against u.s.
Secretary Acheson, leaving no room for doubt
that the United States will use such weapons
If necessary, has now made special and effective
point of declaring that the real war criminal is
that country (Soviet Russia) which sanctions
and inspires the kind of aggression that we see
today in Korea. If there were no actual or
impending crimes of that sort in the world. If
the Kremlin were not perpetratng them if it
were faithful to the Charter of the United Ma
tions, there would be no need to worry about
A-bombs or H-bombs; there would be effective
controls against their production and use
Here is the root source of all the worlds
present grave anxiety AS Chairman Mcmahon
of the joint congressional atomic committee has
said, Control of these dreadful weapons is still
the heart question of the peace, the overriding
question which, unless solved leaves nothing
fundamentally solved" And the bleak and
terrible fact is that there can be no solving of
it as long as the Kremln remains what 1t is
today-the fountainhead of a criminal and
systematic assault on the peace and happiness
of mankind.