Command and Control (72 page)

flashing red lights on the flight test box
:
For the malfunction en route to Nagasaki, see Charles W. Sweeney with James A. Antonucci, and Marion K. Antonucci.
War's End: An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission
(New York: Avon, 1997), p. 209–10.

About one fifth of the plutonium fissioned
:
Peurifoy interview.

equal to about 21,000 tons of TNT
:
The precise yields of the atomic bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the subject of disagreement for many years. The rudimentary nature of the measuring equipment and poor documentation of the missions by the United States Army Air Forces created the uncertainty. Estimates of the Hiroshima bomb's explosive force ranged from 6 kilotons to 23 kilotons. According to the most recent study at Los Alamos, the yield of the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons, with a 20 percent margin of error. The yield of the Nagasaki bomb was 21 kilotons, with a 10 percent margin of error. See John Malik, “The Yields of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear Explosions,” Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-8819, September 1985.

About forty thousand people were killed . . . at least twice that number were injured
:
In 1946 the United States Strategic Bombing Survey estimated the number of deaths in Nagasaki to be more than thirty-five thousand; the following year it raised the estimate to forty-five thousand. The actual number is likely to be much higher and will never be known. See “Effects of Atomic Bombs,” p. 15; and Frank,
Downfall,
pp. 285–87.

more than one third of the homes were destroyed
:
Of the 52,000 residential units in Nagasaki, 27.2 percent were completely destroyed and 10.5 percent were half burned or destroyed. Cited in “Effects of Atomic Bombs,” p. 13.

“bent and twisted like jelly”
:
The Nagasaki Prefecture Report on the blast is quoted in ibid.

Most of the casualties in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
:
The proportions of various causes of death are speculative. As the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey noted, “Many of these people undoubtedly died several times over, theoretically, since each was subjected to several injuries, any of which would
have been fatal.” Nevertheless, an attempt was made to calculate how many people were killed by the different blast effects. Ibid, p. 15.

Flash burns were caused by extraordinarily hot
:
For the impact of thermal radiation on human beings, see Glasstone,
Effects of Nuclear Weapons,
pp. 565–76.

“radiation sickness”
:
For the grim symptoms and survival rate of this ailment, ibid., pp. 577–626.

For decades some historians have questioned
:
As Michael Kort has noted, the historiographic debate has focused on a number of questions, including: Was Japan already planning to surrender before the destruction of Hiroshima? How much did the United States know about the Japanese leadership's plans? Was the demand for an unconditional surrender unreasonable? Were the casualty estimates for an American invasion accurate? Did the Soviet declaration of war on Japan—or the two atomic bombs—prompt Emperor Hirohito to accept defeat? Kort's analysis can be found in
Columbia Guide to Hiroshima,
pp. 75–116. For the argument that the Soviet entry into the war proved decisive, see Tsuyoshi
Hasegawa,
Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2005). For the argument that the atomic bombs ended the war, see Sadao Asada, “The Shock of the Atomic Bomb and Japan's Decision to Surrender: A Reconsideration,”
Pacific Historical Review
, vol. 67, no. 4, (November 1998), pp. 477–512
.
For the American military's concern that more atomic bombs might have to be used in Japan, see Barton J. Bernstein, “Eclipsed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Early Thinking About Tactical Nuclear Weapons,”
International Security,
vol. 15, no. 4 (Spring 1991), pp. 149–73. For a thorough and complex look at these issues, see Frank,
Downfall,
pp. 197–364.

“even though we have to eat grass
”
:
The quote comes from “Instruction to the Troops,” a radio broadcast by General Anami. The full text can be found in Kort,
Columbia Guide to Hiroshima
, pp. 300–301.

“
The enemy has for the first time used cruel bombs”
:
Quoted in John W. Dower,
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), p. 36.

Potential Hazards

“fire in the hole”
:
“Report, Major Missile Accident, Titan II Complex 374-7,” Statement of Eric Ayala, Airman First class, Tab U-4, p. 2.

“Can my people come back into the control center?”
:
Quoted in ibid., Statement of Allan D. Childers, First Lieutenant, Tab U-13, p. 2.

“There's got to be a malfunction”
:
Ibid.

“Well, get over here”
:
Ibid.

“Holy shit,” thought Holder
:
Holder interview.

Sid King was having dinner at a friend's house
:
Interview with Sid King.

an oxidizer trailer parked on the hardstand had started to leak
:
My account of the oxidizer leak is based on interviews with Jeff Kennedy, who was a PTS technician in Little Rock at the time; Gus Anglin, the sheriff who responded to the leak; and Bill Carter, the attorney who represented a local farmer sickened by the fumes. See also Art Harris, “Titan II: A Plague on This Man's House,”
Washington Post,
September 22, 1980.

Gus Anglin, the sheriff of Van Buren County, was standing with a state trooper
:
Anglin interview.

“I'm the sheriff of the county”
:
Ibid.

“No, no, we've got everything under control”
:
Quoted in ibid.

“Sir, get your ass out of here”
:
Quoted in King interview.

“Boy, he wasn't in too good a mood”
:
Quoted in ibid.

“green smoke”
:
Quoted in “Report, Major Missile Accident, Titan II Complex 374-7,” Childers statement, Tab U-13, p. 3.

“If the missile blows,” Holder said
:
Holder interview.

designed to withstand a nuclear detonation with an overpressure of 300 psi
:
Cited in Stumpf,
Titan II
, p. 101.

survive an overpressure of 1,130 psi
:
Cited in ibid., p. 118.

“Put him in the middle of you guys”
:
“Report, Major Missile Accident, Titan II Complex 374-7,” Childers statement, Tab U-13, p. 4.

“You've got to be kidding me,” Holder thought
:
Holder interview.

“Get out of here, get out of here”
:
“Report, Major Missile Accident, Titan II Complex 374-7,” Statement of Thomas A. Brocksmith, Technical Sergeant, Tab U-9, p. 1.

P
ART
T
WO
: M
ACHINERY
OF
C
ONTROL

The Best, the Biggest, and the Most

Hamilton Holt's dream of world peace
:
See Warren F. Kuehl,
Hamilton Holt: Journalist, Internationalist, Educator
(Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1960).

“
PAUSE, PASSER-BY, AND HANG YOUR HEAD
”
:
Holt's inscription continues: “This engine of destruction, torture, and death symbolizes the prostitution of the inventor, the avarice of the manufacturer, the blood-guilt of the statesman, the savagery of the soldier, the perverted patriotism of the citizen, the debasement of the human race . . .” The peace monument was vandalized and destroyed in 1943.

About fifty million people had been killed
:
The actual number will never be known. I have chosen to use a conservative estimate. See Martin Gilbert,
The Second World War: A Complete History
(New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2004), p. 1.

“destructive beyond the wildest nightmares”
:
See “General Arnold Stresses Preparedness Need in Statement,”
Washington Post,
August 19, 1945.

“Seldom if ever has a war ended”
:
Quoted in Paul Boyer,
By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), p. 7. The full text of Murrow's broadcast can be found in Edward Bliss, Jr., ed.,
In Search of Light, 1938–1961: The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), pp. 102–3. “No one is trying to assess the relative influence of the atomic bomb and the Russian declaration of war in bringing about the Japanese defeat,” Murrow added, less than a week after Hiroshima's destruction. “People are content to leave that argument to the historians.”

The appeal called for the United Nations' General Assembly
:
See George C. Holt, “The Conference on World Government,”
Journal of Higher Education,
vol. 17, no. 5 (May 1946), pp. 227–35.

“We believe these to be the minimum requirements”
:
Quoted in ibid., p. 234.

“a world government with power to control”
:
Quoted in Boyer,
Bomb's Early Light
, p. 37.

lowered
“the cost of destruction”
:
H. H. Arnold, “Air Force in the Atomic Age
,”
in Dexter Masters and Katharine Way, eds.,
One World or None: A Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb
(New York: New Press, 2007), p. 71.

“too cheap and easy”
:
Ibid., p. 70.

“A far better protection”
:
Ibid., p. 84.

atomic bomb's “very existence should make war unthinkable”
:
“Memorandum by the Commanding General, Manhattan Engineer District, Leslie R. Groves: Our Army of the Future—As Influenced by Atomic Weapons” (
CONFIDENTIAL
/declassified), in United States Department of State,
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Volume 1, General; the United Nations
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972), p. 1199.

“If there are to be atomic bombs in the world”
:
Ibid., p. 1203

“a secret armament race of a rather desperate character”
:
Henry L. Stimson, “Memorandum for the President, Subject: Proposed Action for the Control of Atomic Bombs,” September 11, 1945 (
TOP SECRET
/declassified), reproduced in Merrill,
Documentary History of Truman Presidency
, p. 222.

“The only way you can make a man trustworthy”
:
Ibid., p. 224.

“We tried that once with Hitler”
:
Quoted in Walter Millis and E. S. Duffield, eds.,
The Forrestal Diaries
(New York: Viking, 1951), p. 96.

“There is nothing—I repeat nothing”
:
“The Charge in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State,” Moscow, September 30, 1945, in United States State Department,
Foreign Relations of the
United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Volume 5, Europe
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 885
.

“highly dangerous”
:
Ibid.

executed tens of thousands of their citizens
:
Within a year of invading Poland during the fall of 1939, the Soviets imprisoned and executed more than twenty thousand Polish officers, policemen, and civilians. And then the Soviet Union denied that fact for more than fifty years. See Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva, Wojciech Materski, eds.,
Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008).

the deaths of perhaps three hundred thousand Japanese
:
See Frank,
Downfall,
pp. 325–26.

killed almost as
many Russians as the Nazis had
:
The actual number killed by Hitler and Stalin remains a subject of debate. Both men were responsible for many millions of deaths. Dmitri Volkogonov, a scholar who gained access to Soviet archives, claimed that Stalin killed about twelve million Russians—not including those who died during the Second World War. According to the historian Timothy Snyder, the Nazis deliberately killed about twelve million civilians, while the Soviets killed about nine million during Stalin's years in power. The historian Anne Applebaum has argued that Snyder's estimates for Stalin seem too low, noting “Soviet citizens were just as likely to die during the war years because of decisions made by Stalin, or because of the interaction between Stalin and Hitler, as they were from the commands of Hitler alone.” See Dmitri Volkogonov,
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy
(New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1988), p. 524; Anne Applebaum, “The Worst of the Madness,”
New York Review of Books,
November 11, 2010; and Timothy Snyder, “Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Killed More?,”
New York Review of Books,
March 10, 2011.

“a militaristic oligarchy”
:
Quoted in Peter Douglas Feaver,
Guarding the Guardians: Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons in the United States
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992), p. 100.