Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-20
Peace and the H-Bomb

seem too fantastic to be real, there Is every
reason to believe that our country is now arm
ing itself with hydrogen bombs that can be de-
livered by our strategic air force against any
target anywhere in the world What this
means is that we have at our dispoSal--in
droppable fornl-a weapon whose destructive
ness is SO great and terrible that it can hardly
be comprehended After all, how can the finite
mind really visualize and understand thing
that is at least theoretically capable-f un-
leashed without restraint-of putting an end
to the human race and making our planet hang
as dead in space as the moon?
The advent of this weapon, of course has
been anticipated for some years past but not
until now has there been any authoritative
confirmation of the far-reaching success of
efforts to develop it as deliverable destroyer.
The confirmation has come from uniquely we'll
informed sources-notably members of the
Joint Congressional Atomic Committeeman
they leave virtually no room for doubt about
the matter What they affirm, without either
denial OF, qualification from higher quarters is
that thermonuclear defamation set of on
March l, at our Pacific Proving Grounds in the
Marshall Islands, let loose an explosive force
three or four times greater than our scientists
out there had expected-and 900 or TOO times
greater than the blast of the A-bomb that
shattered Hiroshima and snuffed out scores of
thousands of lives.
In other words, since the Hiroshima weapon
was equivalent to 10000 tons of exploding TINT,
the March detonation-which incidentally has
led to international complications by Showering
dangerous radioactive debris on japanese fish,
ermen 80 miles away-was comparable to that
Of IL or IA million tons of INT. Yet an even
greater thermonuclear blast is scheduled to be
set of in the current series of Pacific tests Like
its immediate predecessor, it presumably will
derive its power from the fusion of the nuclei
of deuterium or trtium or mixture of these
two types of heavy" hydrogen (the fusion is
"triggered" by the heat of fastening atomic
explosion, and the result may we'll be an out
pouring of force 1000 or more times the force
of so-caled nominal" A-bomb
Indeed, according to Representative Van
zandt, who knows more than a little about the
subject, the United States has achieved a
nuclear and thermonuclear research break
through" promising enough to indicate that
H-bombs can be made to unleash almost lin
ltleSS destructive energy. AS result, in his
opinion, 1t is not unrealiStic to think in terms
of developing--in the relatively near future-a
destroyer zone that can be delivered by single
plane) with blow-up force equal to 100 mil
lion tons of INT. Needless to say, if such
weapon were dropped on Washington Cor Mos
cow, the entire city would be obliterated, and
SO would vast area beyond including other
cities.
In terms of total war and the existence of
human society, the H-bomb thus constitutes
as CHASTITY and revolutionary an advance over
A-weapons as those weapons do over conven-
tipnal explosives. Nor can take much COM
fort from the fact that the United States today
enjoys marked superiority in this field. For the
Soviet Union, which set off a thermonucear
explosion last August is unqueSticnably capable
of catching up with us for all practical pur-
poses. Accordingly, in such circumstances, an
unlimited global conflict four or five years from
now could easily wipe out civilization on both
sides of the Iron Curtain, with nobody winning,
but everybody losing.
Premier Malenkov-the first Russian to do
so-has himself publicly recognized that fact,
and the recognition gives rise to some hope that
the Kremlin may be persuaded in time to join
in genuine collective-security system under
which mass-destruction instruments will be
effectively controlled and outlawed to permit
the Harvesting of atomic hydrogen energy for
the economic and social progress Of mankind.
In any event. If the world remains sane enough
to realize that it can literally kill itself with the
weapons now available, peace-not war-should
be inevitable. That is the one and only note
of optimism that can be sounded in connec-
ton with the new horrors of modern military
technology.
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