chairman of the University of Chicago panel pointed out on that radio show, the terrible reality of this kind of weapon is that it would be easier to destroy all life with it than it would be to use the technology to attack an enemy in a controlled way.
While Szilard wasn’t sure any existing power would consciously wipe out life from the Earth, he did believe that both the United States and the Soviet Union would be prepared to make such a threat and to construct the means to make the threat meaningful—and if they ever reached a standoff on the use of the doomsday weapon, it was not impossible to imagine them carrying out the threat. Others pointed out that it was quite feasible that a man like Hitler, had he controlled such a weapon, might well have been prepared to use it at the end, when it was obvious that he had lost the war. It does not seem at all fanciful that, unable to control the world, he would have tried to destroy all life on Earth.
Although the idea of a cobalt bomb immediately took on a terrible reality in the mind of the general public, it was only a piece of speculation on Szilard’s part when the broadcast was made in 1950. Even so it would reinforce the fear that had already been generated by the dropping of the atomic bomb and that was stoked up by the existence of the hydrogen bomb. This feeling is typified in Tom Lehrer’s darkly humorous song “We Will All Go Together When We Go.”
The practicality of Szilard’s idea was to be given support by other scientists when they worked through the numbers. Admittedly, a doomsday cobalt attack would require something immense—much larger than any atomic weapon that had ever been constructed. It would require thousands of tons of cobalt alone. Yet there was no theoretical limit to the size of a hydrogen bomb—and there was nothing to stop a cobalt doomsday device being made up of a series of ships or land-based sites enabling any size of bomb to be made.
Even though such a bomb was never built, the idea of using radiation as a deadly carpet, rather like the salt that is used in the Bible to seed fields to stop anything from growing, was already in the minds of the public and the military alike. In 1950, in the first year of the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur proposed following up a defeat of Communist Chinese troops by using radioactive cobalt 60 to produce a five-mile-wide no-go zone between Korea and China making it impossible to pass from one country to the other—the ultimate border control.
MacArthur believed that he had the Communists “in the palm of his hand” and would have been able to crush them by using this tactic had it not been for a combination of harassment and interference from the government in Washington, and the “perfidy” of the British, who MacArthur believed had informed the Chinese of his intentions after being briefed by Washington. Whatever the reasoning, thankfully, the plan to sow a cobalt barrier was never undertaken.
During the cold war, our biggest fear was the outbreak of nuclear war. It was thought that it would bring the end of civilization as we knew it, with only pockets of human survivors expected in the United States, the Soviet Union, and Europe. As far as has been revealed, the closest this came to occurring took place in October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. After a spy plane noted a new military site on Cuba, it soon became clear that the Soviets were installing missiles on the island that would be capable of reaching key U.S. cities in minutes.
For the next two weeks, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war. President John Kennedy described the situation in an address to the nation as “standing before the abyss of destruction.” The United States set up a naval blockade of Cuba. Some of the President’s military advisers were recommending an immediate preemptive nuclear strike. If it were left to the Russians to attack first, it would be too late.
By the second week of
While Szilard wasn’t sure any existing power would consciously wipe out life from the Earth, he did believe that both the United States and the Soviet Union would be prepared to make such a threat and to construct the means to make the threat meaningful—and if they ever reached a standoff on the use of the doomsday weapon, it was not impossible to imagine them carrying out the threat. Others pointed out that it was quite feasible that a man like Hitler, had he controlled such a weapon, might well have been prepared to use it at the end, when it was obvious that he had lost the war. It does not seem at all fanciful that, unable to control the world, he would have tried to destroy all life on Earth.
Although the idea of a cobalt bomb immediately took on a terrible reality in the mind of the general public, it was only a piece of speculation on Szilard’s part when the broadcast was made in 1950. Even so it would reinforce the fear that had already been generated by the dropping of the atomic bomb and that was stoked up by the existence of the hydrogen bomb. This feeling is typified in Tom Lehrer’s darkly humorous song “We Will All Go Together When We Go.”
The practicality of Szilard’s idea was to be given support by other scientists when they worked through the numbers. Admittedly, a doomsday cobalt attack would require something immense—much larger than any atomic weapon that had ever been constructed. It would require thousands of tons of cobalt alone. Yet there was no theoretical limit to the size of a hydrogen bomb—and there was nothing to stop a cobalt doomsday device being made up of a series of ships or land-based sites enabling any size of bomb to be made.
Even though such a bomb was never built, the idea of using radiation as a deadly carpet, rather like the salt that is used in the Bible to seed fields to stop anything from growing, was already in the minds of the public and the military alike. In 1950, in the first year of the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur proposed following up a defeat of Communist Chinese troops by using radioactive cobalt 60 to produce a five-mile-wide no-go zone between Korea and China making it impossible to pass from one country to the other—the ultimate border control.
MacArthur believed that he had the Communists “in the palm of his hand” and would have been able to crush them by using this tactic had it not been for a combination of harassment and interference from the government in Washington, and the “perfidy” of the British, who MacArthur believed had informed the Chinese of his intentions after being briefed by Washington. Whatever the reasoning, thankfully, the plan to sow a cobalt barrier was never undertaken.
During the cold war, our biggest fear was the outbreak of nuclear war. It was thought that it would bring the end of civilization as we knew it, with only pockets of human survivors expected in the United States, the Soviet Union, and Europe. As far as has been revealed, the closest this came to occurring took place in October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. After a spy plane noted a new military site on Cuba, it soon became clear that the Soviets were installing missiles on the island that would be capable of reaching key U.S. cities in minutes.
For the next two weeks, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war. President John Kennedy described the situation in an address to the nation as “standing before the abyss of destruction.” The United States set up a naval blockade of Cuba. Some of the President’s military advisers were recommending an immediate preemptive nuclear strike. If it were left to the Russians to attack first, it would be too late.
By the second week of
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