Soon after his appointment as chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1950, Gordon E. Dean began an office diary composed primarily of notes from his telephone conversations. The diary contains Dean's accounts of the mobilization of atomic energy for the Korean War, the decision to conduct atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the U.S., the development and testing of the first thermonuclear device, the decisions to erect vast plants for the production of atomic weapons, the Rosenberg atom spy case, and other critical issues. Originally published in 1987. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Draws from previously classified documents, unpublished manuscripts, private correspondence, and other sources to chronicle the events that surrounded the revocation of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance in 1954, discussing the roles of physicist Edward Teller, Republican businessman Lewis Strauss, congressional assistant William Borden, and President Eisenhower.--

"In The American Lab, former LLNL director Bruce Tarter captures the spirit of the Laboratory and its reflection of the broader world in which it thrived. He identifies the major themes that have characterized science and technology in the latter half of the twentieth century--the growth and decline of nuclear warheads, the unprecedented rise of supercomputing technology, laser systems, fusion, and mass spectrometry. He illuminates the Cold War dynamic from the participants' point of view--an unusual and valuable perspective on nuclear history. The story of the laboratory is a tale of three eras. Although the Lab took its research vision from European Edward Teller, its modus operandi came almost exclusively from namesake Ernest Lawrence and was subsequently invented in-house by its scientists and staff. During its first two decades the Lab's focus was almost entirely on nuclear weapons research and development, with a few other smaller enterprises that were technically related to the nuclear weapons activities. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Laboratory, along with many others in the Department of Energy complex, expanded into civilian pursuits that included energy, environment, biology, and basic science. A major program in laser science and technology became a cornerstone of this period. The third era was initiated by the end of the Cold War and saw the transformation of the traditional nuclear weapons activities into the stockpile stewardship program along with the rapid growth of projects that can be broadly characterized as homeland security. Tarter's history/memoir of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, provides an insider's examination of nuclear science in the Cold War and the technological shift that occurred after the fall of the Berlin Wall."--Provided by publisher.

More than a quarter-century has now passed since the United States set off the last of three underground atomic blasts in the remote wilderness of the Aleutian islands, off the coast of Alaska. Cannikin, as this third test was called, exploded as planned on November 6, 1971, on Amchitka Island. The first test, Project Long Shot (1965), was designed to determine whether the blast’s shock waves could be distinguished from earthquakes. Milrow, the second (1969), and Cannikin were part of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile development program. Amchitka and the Bomb looks at how these nuclear explosions were planned and conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission, in spite of vehement protests by political and civilian groups. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of a new generation of weapons, the government defended the nuclear tests on Amchitka as providing U.S. presidents, and especially Richard Nixon, with negotiating power to force the Soviet Union to accept a satisfactory arms limitation agreement. Dean Kohlhoff traces the enormous environmental impact of the blasts on the Aleutian wildlife refuge system. He also examines the social and political fallout from the tests on Aleut civilian populations. As the tests inexorably went forward, an emerging environmental movement was galvanized to action. Passionate but ultimately futile attempts to stop the blasts were made by such nascent groups as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and the Wilderness Society. Although Alaskan Aleuts sued to halt Cannikin and environmental groups joined them for an injunction against the test, a split U.S. Supreme Court eventually approved the 5.1-megaton explosion. Amchitka and the Bomb tells a harrowing story of the struggle of private citizens and small environmental groups to counter the weight of the federal government. It adds immeasurably to our understanding of the nuclear history of the United States. Its concise interweaving of the military, scientific, economic, and social implications surrounding the nuclear explosions on Amchitka Island exposes the unpleasant consequences of allowing treasured national values to become victim to political necessity. Kohlhoff has contributed a vital chapter to Alaska's history and to the history of the American environmental movement.

Gregg Herken's Brotherhood of the Bomb is the fascinating story of the men who founded the nuclear age, fully told for the first time The story of the twentieth century is largely the story of the power of science and technology. Within that story is the incredible tale of the human conflict between Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller-the scientists most responsible for the advent of weapons of mass destruction. How did science-and its practitioners-enlisted in the service of the state during the Second World War, become a slave to its patron during the Cold War? The story of these three men, builders of the bombs, is fundamentally about loyalty-to country, to science, and to each other-and about the wrenching choices that had to be made when these allegiances came into conflict. Gregg Herken gives us the behind-the-scenes account based upon a decade of research, interviews, and newly released Freedom of Information Act and Russian documents. Brotherhood of the Bomb is a vital slice of American history told authoritatively-and grippingly-for the first time.

Super Bomb unveils the story of the events leading up to President Harry S. Truman's 1950 decision to develop a "super," or hydrogen, bomb. That fateful decision and its immediate consequences are detailed in a diverse and complete account built on newly released archives and previously hidden contemporaneous interviews with more than sixty political, military, and scientific figures who were involved in the decision. Ken Young and Warner R. Schilling present the expectations, hopes, and fears of the key individuals who lobbied for and against developing the H-bomb. They portray the conflicts that arose over the H-bomb as rooted in the distinct interests of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Los Alamos laboratory, the Pentagon and State Department, the Congress, and the White House. But as they clearly show, once Truman made his decision in 1950, resistance to the H-bomb opportunistically shifted to new debates about the development of tactical nuclear weapons, continental air defense, and other aspects of nuclear weapons policy. What Super Bomb reveals is that in many ways the H-bomb struggle was a proxy battle over the morality and effectiveness of strategic bombardment and the role and doctrine of the US Strategic Air Command.

This text uses biographical techniques to test the question: did the advent of the nuclear bomb prevent World War III? It examines the careers of ten Cold War statesmen, and asks whether they viewed war, and its acceptability, differently after the advent of the bomb.

This book is a provocative and thoroughly documented reassessment of President Truman's profound influence on U.S. foreign policy and the Cold War. The author contends that Truman remained a parochial nationalist who lacked the vision and leadership to move the United States away from conflict and toward detente. Instead, he promoted an ideology and politics of Cold War confrontation that set the pattern for successor administrations."

Over the course of a career that stretched from the early 1920s through the late 1970s, David Eli Lilienthal (1899-1981) became a larger-than-life symbol of American liberalism. Born in Morton, Illinois to Jewish immigrants from what later became Czechoslovakia, Lilienthal attended DePauw University and Harvard Law School. After practicing labor and public utility law in Chicago, Governor Philip La Follette appointed him to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission in 1931. In 1933, President Roosevelt appointed Lilienthal as one of three founding directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1946, President Truman appointed him as the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Lilienthal left public service in 1950 but continued applying the TVA concept of coordinated development, including dams, irrigation, flood control and electric generation via his consulting firm, Development and Research Corporation, which operated internationally, including in Iran under the Shah. “This biography is a study of a fascinating man who, in his long career, embodied the achievements and tragedy of mid-century American liberalism. The author has mastered his sources and produced a wonderful portrait of a man and his times.” —Erwin C. Hargrove, Vanderbilt University “Steven Neuse’s biography of David Lilienthal fills an important gap in the history of twentieth-century American liberalism. It is a perceptive analysis of a complex character.” — William Bruce Wheeler, University of Tennessee “[A] well-written, exhaustively researched, and balanced perspective of [Lilienthal]... Steven Neuse has written one of the best studies to date on a prominent twentieth-century American and one that will be cited for many years to come.” — Michael V. Namorato, University of Mississippi, Journal of American History “In this exemplary biography, [Neuse] illuminates Lilienthal’s road to influence... This book merits the attention of all serious students of 20th-century American democracy.” — M. J. Birkner, Gettysburg College, Choice “Neuse offers a superbly crafted discussion of Lilienthal’s time as TVA commissioner... [and] traces the evolving controversies and achievements of TVA with exemplary clarity... [A] wise and wide ranging book. Based on an enviable command of private papers, personal interviews, and government documents, it is incomparably the finest existing study of this complicated and remarkable American and of absorbing interest to anyone interested in the New Deal, atomic politics, or the travails of American liberalism at home and abroad in the late twentieth century.” — Georgia Historical Quarterly “[A] splendidly perceptive analysis of this consummate bureaucratic politician and liberal who managed constructive programs in a destructive world.” — Journal of East Tennessee History “[A] quite readable biography based on enormous research... [this] book is important and deserves a wide readership.” — Howard P. Segal, University of Maine, Nature “Neuse has performed a very important service in providing scholars with a ‘life and times’ chronicle of Lilienthal... Neuse’s account is impressively researched, his prose admirably lucid... Neuse’s study stands as proof that narrative biography is still a vibrant scholarly enterprise.” — Gregory Field, University of Michigan, Technology and Culture “This is a well-written, extensively documented, informative narrative on a fascinating man...” — John Minton, Western Kentucky University, Tennessee Historical Quarterly “Steven Neuse’s exhaustive study of David Lilienthal is the much-needed and definitive biography of a highly significant figure, the very personification of American liberalism and grassroots democracy. All twentieth-century scholars must master it, and the general reader will be fascinated by this sensitive tale of a tortured crusader who dreamed so expansively and felt so deeply.” — Roy Talbert, Jr., Coastal Carolina University