The Key West citizen., 1953-12-09
PRESIDENT SAYS
Oontinued Prom PAGE Onel

NOuIluuGQ EEUIu rage OI1cJ
day about the stockpile in his
United Nations speech?
Is the increase a weapon a day?
A fraction of a weapon a day? Sew
eral weapons day? That infor-
nation, of course. is top secret.
But here are some materials for
thought:
/. The United States stockpile is
believed to have passed the 1000
mark some time ago, perhaps soon
after the outbreak of the Korean
War gave impetus to the produc.
ton program. And atomic energy
officials have said publicly that the
rate Of production. as well as the
total produced, was due to N
crease.
2. When in 1916 the United States
exploded two test bombs at Bikini
Atoll they were understood to be
the only two finished weapons in
existence.
That was a year after the worlds
first nuclear fission explosion had
occurred in the Alamogordo, N. NJ,
reservation and two others had
been used on Hiroshima and Naga-
saki.
The President spoke in "the
language of atomic warfare" when
he made his urgent plea for peace:
Of a hydrogen weapon with the
force of millions of tons of explod-
ing INT.
OF new atomic bombs 25 times
mightier than the missiles with
which the atomic age dawned"
only eight years ago-and thus un-
leashing energy equivalent to a
half-million tons of INT.
Of the long string of atomic ex-
plosions produced by the United
States, which once worried over
the scarcity of nuclear material.
Eisenhower-probably with the
counsel of an anxious Prime Min
lister Churchill put those thoughts
into the speech.
He used the yardstfck of the
great war in which he fought to
measure the power the United
States now holds. He said:
To-day, the United States stock
pile of atomic weapons, which, of
course, increases daily, exceeds by
many times the explosive equiv
alent Of the total of all bombs and
all shells that came from every
plane and every gun in every thea
ter of war through all the years of
World War H."
He said az test explosions have
occurred since the historic Alamo
gordo shot July Is, l945. That
meant grand total of As explo-
Sions have been set off by this
country. OF the total, there have
been these: the original test in
New Mexico; two dropped on ia
pan; two fired in Operation
Crossroads" at Bikini; 81 shots at
the Las Vegas, N. ~, proving
ground for small and intermediate
explosions; nine at Eniwetok in the
Marshall Island group of the mid
Pacific.
This was the first time it was
possible TO deduce precisely the
number of test explosions at the
Eniwetok Proving Ground opened
In l94S. 1t seemed significant that
Eisenhower, in reading his pre-
pared text, omitted the printed
word atomic" in reporting 42
tests.
One of the Eniwetok shots in the
test series last fall was a hydrogen
explosion. While a hydrogen explo-
sion is in reality an atomic explo-
sion (the fusion instead of fission of
atoms) the popular use of the word
has been applied only to fission
bombs.
But Eisenhower shaded the en-
couraging word of a great advan-
tage in numbers of nuclear weap-
ons for the United States with
some SOLDERING advice, including:
Even a vast superiority in num-
bers OF weapons, and a consequent
capability of devastating retalia.
ton, is no preventive. in itself.
against the fearful material dam.
age and toll of human lives that
would be inflicted by surprise az.
gresSion.
Even against the most power
ful defense, an aggresSor in pos.
session of the effective minimum
number of atomic bombs for a sur.
prise attack could probably place
a sufficient number of his bombs
on the chosen targets to cause hid
eous damage"
1t appeared noteworthy that
while Eisenhower spoke several
times of the quantitative edge held
by the United States over Russia |
he made no mention of qualita- /
tive margin. This omission could T.
mean either that (Al no qualitative
a1vu =.