All About Radiation: The Revolt of the American Nuclear Physicists

Author: Hubbard, L. R.
Book title: All About Radiation by A Nuclear Physicist and a Medical Doctor
Publication date: 1957
Edition: 1967
Location: London
Publisher: Publications Organisation World Wide
Description: Hubbard writes about going with his friend Johnny Arwine to Cal-Tech to organize a group of atomic physicists so that "some sort of sensible control could be monitored across the bomb."

At   the   end   of   World   War   2   a   friend   of   mine,   Lt. Commander of the Coast Guard, Johnny Arwine, and myself went to the California Institute of Technology¹–Cal   Tech– to   meet   with   a   great   many   old   time atomic   physicists   who   had   been   at   the   project   that dropped the original bomb–from Los Alamogordo², ³. It was our intention to organise these people so that some sort of sensible control could be monitored across the bomb. Nobody had thought about it at this date and Johnny Arwine and I were still in uniform. We were both in the world of engineering, then in the world of arts and then finally in the Services. Neither of us had a thing to do with atomic fission in its development.

We got these atomic physicists together. I took the chair and Arwine addressed them. We spoke of using a propaganda weapon against anyone who would use atomic   fission   further   against   the   human   race.   We planned   to   use   any   means   we   had   to   educate   the people in the world concerning this.

The   nuclear   physicist was   already   so   furious about   this   that   Arwine   and   I   could   not   control   the meeting. We could keep them in their place, tell them to talk but we couldn’t get across any thought that was   even   rationally   workable.   These   men   said   one thing: “We wish to overthrow the government of the United States by force.”

That   is   an   astonishing   chapter   in   the   field   of nuclear physics which only a few of us know about. There was a revolt and later on offices opened in the United States to propagandise the public in a movement led by the late Albert Einstein.

Arwine   and   I   failed   and   withdrew   our   support from that meeting and did our best to calm them. We reported   the   findings   to   the   Navy   Department   and the President. We said that we could not associate our names   with   this   organisation.   But   the   atomic   physicist   did   try   and   he   is   not   going   to   do   much   more because Albert Einstein is dead.

The other day I read the list of atomic scientists who are now dead. It is practically the whole roster. They   died   of   leukemia,   cancer   and   the   very   diseases radiation sickness breeds. They died to a marked degree   of   radiation,   mostly   I   suppose   mentally   because they had exerted a tremendous overt act against the   world and   have   been   unable to   repair   it   in any way.

That   is   clear   fact   and   not   propaganda.   I   am   just stating that there was a background where the nuclear physicist   did   attempt   to   revolt.   The   punishment taken against him was severe. The information given here is not even vaguely confidential and I am not in the possession of any confidential material.

From that time on it was what seemed to be a lost cause.   We   knew   that   the   world   was   certainly   in danger from the theory of atomic war, but I am afraid that   none   of   us   were   clever   enough   to   realise   that continued testing would take place since it seemed so stupid. None of us counted on the factor that the airs of the earth would be polluted with radiation. That was not part of our understanding and so the only new thing that has happened here, has been a certain carelessness   for   public   welfare in the continued testing   of   the bombs.

Now let us examine this “revolt” and let us see in it the truth of the threat of hysteria. Even the men who made the bomb became so hysterical for a while that they could not even calmly organise. They screamed disgracefully at their own government. The danger was never that great, certainly. Defences were being built, no new war threatened. Yet these men went a bit mad. The group could not be controlled. They would not even listen to the necessity of calm public education. They merely wanted more hysteria. By the actions of these persons can be predicted a possibility of hysteria on a much wider scale. Propagandists to the contrary, this must be prevented.

I   do   not   believe   that   atomic   fission   will   continue being tested to a point where everybody dies. But I do believe that bombs will continue being tested to a point where everybody could be worried to a point where a great deal of the ability would be gone out of society.

I   am   not   talking   against   the   United   States.   The United States was simply the first to develop this. Since that   time   the   bomb   has   gotten   into   much   more   irresponsible hands, Russian hands and the Russian is attempting to capitalise on this hysteria factor.

In the final analysis man has done an unfortunate thing and unless defences can be found and the public educated he may very well pay a dreadful price.

Hubbard, L. R. (1957). All About Radiation by A Nuclear Physicist and a Medical Doctor (1967 ed., pp. 64-8). London: Publications Organisation World Wide.⁴

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