Nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons are explosive devices that derive their destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.

Sourced

• Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration...
  
  This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat or exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
  • Albert Einstein, letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (August 2, 1939, delivered October 11, 1939); reported in Einstein on Peace, ed. Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden (1960, reprinted 1981), pp. 294–95.

• I happened to read recently a remark by the American nuclear physicist W. Davidson, who noted that the explosion of one hydrogen bomb releases a greater amount of energy than all the explosions set off by all countries in all wars known in the entire history of mankind. And he, apparently, is right.
  • Nikita Khrushchev, Address to the United Nations, New York City (September 18, 1959), as reported by The New York Times (September 19, 1959), p. 8. The physicist quoted was eventually found to be William Davidon, associate physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois.

• When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you've had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer, testifying in his defense in his 1954 security hearings (page 81 of the official transcript)^{[specific citation needed]}

• The fact is that nuclear weapons have prevented not only nuclear war but conventional war in Europe for forty years.
  • Margaret Thatcher Speech at Lord mayor's Banquet 1986^{[specific citation needed]}

• Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT....
  With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces....
  It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East....
  Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
  We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan’s power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us.
  • President Harry S Truman, radio address to the American people, following the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan (August 6 1945).

• Be careful above all things not to let go of the atomic weapon until you are sure, and more than sure, that other means of preserving peace are in your hands.
  • Winston Churchill Final Speech to US Congress^{[specific citation needed]}

• Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we know it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking.
  • Albert Einstein, "Only Then Shall We Find Courage", New York Times Magazine (23 June 1946)

• They asked me what I thought of the atomic bomb. I said I had not been able to take any interest in it.
  • Gertrude Stein, "Reflection on the Atomic Bomb" (1946)

• The atomic bomb is the Second Coming in Wrath.
  • Winston Churchill, on hearing about the Trinity test, as recollected in Harvey H. Bundy, "Remembered Words," The Atlantic (March 1957).

• Any military commander who is honest with himself, or with those he's speaking to, will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power. He's killed people unnecessarily — his own troops or other troops — through mistakes, through errors of judgment. A hundred, or thousands, or tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand. But ... he hasn't destroyed nations. And the conventional wisdom is don't make the same mistake twice, learn from your mistakes. And we all do. Maybe we make the same mistake three times, but hopefully not four or five. But there will be no learning period with nuclear weapons. You make one mistake and you're going to destroy nations.
  • Robert McNamara, in The Fog of War

• Nuclear weapon: an agency reserved for use by the most civilized nations for the settlement of disputes that might become troublesome if left unadjusted. Unfortunately, too many formerly uncivilized nations are becoming civilized.
  • Leonard Rossiter in the Devil's Bedside Book^{[specific citation needed]}

See also

• Nuclear war