Word: delayed
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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More than a year ago, two Washington reporters, piecing together many fragments from the public record of the hydrogen bomb's history, concluded that: 1) there had been unnecessary delays in the construction of this weapon; 2) part of the delay had been traceable to opposition to the building of an H-bomb; 3) this opposition was not merely technical, but was associated with deep intragovernmental dissension, confusion and indecision over general weapons policy; 4) these struggles, in turn, have been bound up with larger conflicts about the strategic, political and moral aspects of the international scene...
Such a conflict would be even more serious than the H-bomb delay. For if the U.S. cannot continue to enlist the support of science, if it cannot solve the critical problems of the relationship between the national interest and the pursuit of knowledge, then the U.S. will not survive-and will not deserve to survive. These are not questions for scientists alone or for public officials alone; they affect everybody, and it is wholesome, though painful, that the Shepley-Blair report brings a much larger part of this important argument to public view...
...Limitations. The Shepley-Blair book begins with the following important statement of its own limitations: "A full assessment of the delay in development of the hydrogen bomb and its effect on the survival of the U.S. as a nation and upon the future of mankind will be impossible for some years to come. These reporters have not attempted to do so here, or to ascribe motives to the individuals responsible...
...Father of the Bomb. In the months after the President's order, there is evidence of further delay. After Truman's order, Oppenheimer never publicly opposed the H-bomb. But other scientists did. Twelve top physicists signed a statement that said: "We believe that no nation has the right to use such a bomb, no matter how righteous its cause." It is a fact that Teller had great difficulty recruiting scientists in the year after the President's order...
...their commander, General Edmondo de Renzi, were buffeted and disheveled by the warmth of their welcome. General Winterton decided not to wait around for a proper transfer of authority, sent his regrets and sailed away, amid taunts. The Centaur's skipper explained later that he could not delay putting to sea because of the weather...