Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!xanth!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnews!smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com
From: smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Steven M. Bellovin)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Gas warfare, how bad really?
Message-ID: <3420@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 24 Jan 89 02:57:15 GMT
References: <3357@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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In article <3357@cbnews.ATT.COM>, punch@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (William F. Punch) writes:
> Also, I have been reading a book lately, "The Making of the Atomic
> Bomb" by Richard Rhodes (Very good book if you are interested in the
> politics of the thing)...

Let me strongly second the recommendation of this book.  It's a
comprehensive discussion of entire history of the construction of the
bomb (and won a Pulitzer Prize, if I recall correctly).  It starts with
things like how the neutron was discovered, goes into the personalities
of the various folks involved, the technical details (the part most
often overlooked in popular depictions of an atomic bomb is the
``initiator'' -- the gadget that emits the initial neutrons -- and it
turns out to be a very difficult gadget indeed), the politics, and the
morality.  I do quarrel with some of the conclusions -- I very strongly
do not feel that the morality of bombing cities can be equated with the
Holocaust, even though the former is ethically very questionable -- but
the book as a whole is still worth reading.  (One of my favorite
vignettes concerns the effort to manufacture explosive lenses of
sufficiently high-quality for the implosion.  Some of the castings had
small cavities, which would disturb the symmetry of the explosion.  So
the explosives expert *drilled* into the blocks (using a dentist's
drill) and filled the cavities with fresh slurry!  He didn't know if it
was safe, so he refused to ask anyone else to do it.)


		--Steve Bellovin
		ulysses!smb