Our Nuclear Future: Facts, Dangers and OpportunitiesTeller, Edward
Science
Our Nuclear Future: Facts, Dangers and Opportunities
Teller, Edward
Nuclear energy -- Popular works; Nuclear weapons; Radioactivity -- Physiological effect
Nuclear warfare is likely to be quite different from past conflicts. The
great concentration of firepower which a nuclear weapon represents makes
it possible to attack on enemy anywhere, at very short notice. This is
true no matter what the particular target is, whether one is trying to
attack the planes, ships, tanks, or troop concentrations of an enemy.
The great mobility of nuclear firepower makes it highly probable that
the nuclear conflict will be short. What the factory produces during
this conflict will not affect the outcome of the fighting. The only
weapons on which anyone can rely are the weapons which are already
stockpiled. Therefore, it will be militarily useless to bomb factories.
The same fact of mobility also implies that no great flow of war
material will need to be maintained. Practically all movement can be
executed by light and fast methods, by planes, submarines, and small
battle groups. Under these conditions the cities will lose their
importance as centers of transportation.
The only purpose in bombing cities will be to spread terror among the
enemy. This was rarely done in past wars. In fact, terror is
self-defeating because it provokes retaliation from the other side.
We believe that the role of nuclear weapons in a future war is by no
means the killing of millions of civilians. It is rather to stop the
armed forces of an aggressor. This is not easy to do because it requires
not only nuclear weapons, but very special kinds of nuclear weapons
which are hard to develop and harder to perfect. But with proper
experimentation and proper planning the defensive use of nuclear weapons
is possible.
The idea of tactical nuclear weapons is not new. The possibility of
using nuclear explosives in small wars has been frequently discussed.
What kind of weapons do we need in order to fight these small wars and
to defend the freedom of people wherever such defense becomes necessary?
It has often been suggested that in small wars, small weapons will be
used, while big weapons are appropriate for big wars. Such a statement
is much too simple and has no relation to reality. In every case the
right kind of weapon is the one which performs the job of stopping the
enemy’s armed forces without inflicting unnecessary loss on the innocent
bystander. For this purpose we need a great number of weapons which are
adaptable to specific purposes, which are easy to transport and easy to
deliver, and give rise to the kind of effect which the situation
requires.
For instance, a nuclear weapon may be carried by a fighter plane and
used to shoot down an attacking bomber. Since the carrying capacity of
the fighter plane is severely limited, the weapon for this purpose must
be small and light. A major objective of the test program is to develop
such purely defensive weapons.
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