Secrecy

Abstract

In 1949 a secret internal debate took place in the USA among the President’s advisers over whether or not to develop the H-bomb. Oppenheimer and many other scientists who had been involved in the A-bomb programme opposed it, since the H-bomb dwarfed even the A-bomb in destructiveness. The debate is described by Herbert York, an ex-director of the Livermore Laboratory, in his book The Advisers: Oppenheimer, Teller and the Superbomb: ‘the argument was between moderates and hawks, or perhaps between hawks and superhawks. No full-fledged doves… were involved for the simple reason that none of them had the necessary clearances’. Security procedures designed to keep nuclear secrets had also served to restrict the circle of decision-makers to those who were prepared to accept and develop nuclear weapons.