Scorpions In The Bottle

Time fractures and bifurcates infinitely, leading to the hoary science fictional scenario of alternative histories. In some parallel worldline, Jesus succumbed to the temptation on the mount. In others, the conquistadors don't rape America. Somewhere, Hitler was never born or died in the trenches during World War I. Somewhere Stalin fulfils his mother's dream and becomes an ordained priest. On still other Earths, the Nazis develop the Atom bomb first and win World War II. In some, the CTBT goes through the UN without India raising a hue and cry.

In some of those metaphysical realities, Harry S Truman did not fire that sonuvabitch MacArthur and the American Caesar was allowed to nuke North Korea and the People's Republic of China back into the Stone Age as he proposed. In others, World War III started with the Cuban crisis of 1962 and presumably, World War IV was subsequently fought with spears. In some, all the fail safes of the USA and USSR are triggered. Mutually Assured Destruction occurs in an hour and life ends in a post holocaust nuclear winter. Somewhere Chernobyl and Three Mile Island are not contained and the China Syndrome of nightmare meltdown comes through on the probability map.

All these have come within an ace of happening on this particular vale of tears. This is the story of what actually happened as man stumbled his way through the electron cloud of nuclear fission and fusion in the middle years of this century. It has all the necessary ingredients of an epic. It covers a huge canvas, features a cast of millions, astounding heroism, impossible venality, men of great genius and utter idiots scattered across four decades and four continents.

In dealing with thermonuclear fusion (H-bomb) development, Rhodes is writing a logical sequel to his earlier account of the making of the Atom (fission) bomb. That won him the Pulitzer "" this book was extensively supported by a Sloan Foundation grant. It couldn't have been written before the collapse of the USSR when the Pandora's Box of classified KGB files became available. At least not in the form it does take, for the USP of the book is the author's meticulous recording of the USSR's scientific advances. It does, of course, unavoidably cover much of the same ground as the earlier work. In history, as in physics, it is impossible to reach fusion without fission.

This is a spy story and a political thriller that actually happened. The USSR developed the A-bomb almost totally by means of industrial espionage. At one time, during the Lend-Lease scheme the Russians were transporting anything upto 50 black suitcases full of classified documents at a time out of the USA under diplomatic immunity. USAAF officer George Racey Jordan actually opened one consignment in March 1943 and skimmed stolen documents mentioning Uranium-92, deuterium, cyclotrons, isotopes and other key words he had never heard.

He also found a map of Oak Ridge, Tennessee bearing a legend Manhattan Project, engineers dept. But it was politically incorrect for the USA to make an official complaint to their allies. Under the lend lease, the Soviet scientific establishment also received quantities of relevant atomic material including rare metals and heavy water. They cloned their first reactors and bombs.

The pattern of successful Soviet information acquisition continued through to the H-bomb. The names of Fuchs, Greenglass and the Rosenbergs still evoke violent and diametrically opposite reactions fifty years later from people at different ends of the political spectrum. Rhodes cites KGB sources to confirm the Rosenbergs were indeed communist agents and a vital link in the chain. In contrast, the CIA was woefully at sea in their assessments. The agency reported on July 1, 1949, The Soviet Union might be expected to produce its first Atomic bomb by mid-1953. The first Soviet device actually exploded on August 29, 1949.

It is a chill-a-minute story. The first Lithium bomb test at Bikini in 1954 got yields three times higher than predictions. By 1955, the USSR had its own thermonuclear devices. And the world teetered for the next 40 years on the MAD Seesaw. Through the next three decades, both sides developed ICBMS, then second strike capability. Trillions were spent in the Reagan era on the SDI Star Wars programme. But, post 1962 the world has never quite been on the brink of allout nuclear conflict. The author's thesis is that we owe the fact that the Cold War never turned hot to MAD. It is difficult to argue with that logic. The author's access to previously classified sources and his extensive interviews with the happening H-bomb people also leads him to make some reassessments. For example, contrary to popular mythology, the hawkish Edward Teller held up the H-bomb project and led the scientific establishment up several blind alleys due to his obsession with bigger and better devices. It wasn't Oppenheimer despite his publicly stated misgivings that led to his security clearances being revoked.

The author also details the brinkmanship preceding the Cuban crisis. The US military establishment nearly went over the top and the Soviets had 12 nuclear missiles loaded for bear on the island. He details the little known fact that through the '50s, the US Air Force made deliberately provocative daylight squadron strength overflights of Soviet cities, though that stopped with the Gary Powers U-2 episode.

One of the more frightening thoughts provoked by a very frightening book is that the military establishments of both Super powers almost superseded normal channels several times when it came to the control and employment of megaton devices and delivery systems.

All in all, a brilliant description of a very tangled world wide web of destruction that has not (yet) been unleashed. The only thing needed to render this story completely state-of-the-art would be a description of the Chinese efforts. Possibly a description of lesser eyeball to eyeball confrontation which nearly ended in mushroom clouds such as the Sino-Soviet Ussuri conflicts and Yom Kippur would have also made an nice appendix. But then one wouldn't expect a conscientious historian to write without possessing access to relevant research material. All in all, a book worth staying awake to finish. Once you've read it, the subject is guaranteed to keep you awake for the rest of your days.