He would have upwards of 20 by the end of december. Already the Assembly Line was open. And plutonium was coming from the reactors in huge amounts at that point. And you could calculate all of these things. We needed this much, and its going to take this long to fabricate it. So he was ready for many more than just two. But he thought two would initially probably enough. But he wasnt going to stop there. And he continued to make them. Thank you. My name is kathleen sullivan, im here with the stories project. And i just would like to invite us to broaden our perspective. You know, when i look at this truemans nuclear legacy, we can also say humans nuclear legacy. I think that if one concedes that Nuclear Weapons are a weapon of war, then one does not understand what a Nuclear Weapon is. And i think while we can speak specifically about hiroshima and nagasaki, those of us at the symposium last night heard yamashita. Sedseko saying specifically that the atomic weapons used in hiroshima an
Were told to stop and they did. Stan got me most of the way there on there was no decision. You can still at a certain level, truman as a president knew he bore ultimate responsibility. A decision not to intervene is, in a sense, a decision. When you put it in the context of truman takes over, as we know now with no preparation for that role or briefing. He announces he wants to execute the legacy of franklin roosevelt. If you do to these moments that hes in these early weeks, hes not the later, a man very much alone, finding his way. These very moving scenes you read about, he goes home with these great reading lists trying to figure out what was the legacy, what did the president really want to do. Hes searching ernlestly to find it. One of the areas he deals with, atomic policy, has been emphasized, he had enormous confidence in marshall, knew this was a policy roosevelt endorsed. Compared to other things he was facing, this seemed like a simple matter. This was the president s poli
This weekend on the cspan networks, friday night on cspan, native American History. Then on saturday, live allday coverage from the National Book festival science pavilion. Saturday evening, from bbc scotland, a debate on scotlands upcoming decision on whether to end its political union. Sunday, q a with judge robert catsman, chief justice of the Second Circuit court of appeals. He shares his approach to interpreting laws passed by congress. On cspan 2, friday at 8 00 p. M. , in depth with former congressman, ron paul. Then on saturday, all day live coverage of the National Book festival from the history and biograp biography pavelions. And sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, afterwards with william burrows, talking about his book the asteroid threat. On American History tv on cspan3 friday, a nasa documentary about the 1969 apollo 11 moon landing. Saturday, on the civil war, general William Tecumseh shermans atlanta campaign. Sunday night, a look at election laws and Supreme Court case of b
Maintain a moral purity u while a vast slaughter occurred at the rate of over 200,000 deaths a month. Isnt there a tragic dilemma here, namely which innocent lives to save. Could truman have rested at peace by prolong iing the japane domination of asia . As future anniversaries of the dropping of the bombs occur, i hope for less condemnation of trumans decision at least until the critics can specify a moral and still feasible course of action to end the war. Perhaps there might even be some empathy for the man required to make the decision and who carried the burden of his harry truman of independence, missouri, was some moral mons r monster. Those who criticize his decision would do well i think to place themselves in his shoes and ask what they might have done in his circumstance. Honest observers who refrain from analysis and criticisms will acknowledge that they were used primarily for a military purpose so as to force japans surrender and that they prove defective in inflicting de
And environmental and Health Considerations were always secondary. Primary was, you know, the russians are coming. Im sorry. Weve got to build more bombs. We built bombs like crazy. I think about schi66,000 of the over the course of 1945 to 1992. Constantly recycling. They were the things to have for the military. The military wanted them in every variety. We had two competing laboratories who supplied whatever they wanted. Sometimes gave them things they didnt even know about. So this was the dynamic of part of the arms race. The russians were coming. Competing Service Rivalry between the army, airforce, navy wanting them up. Laboratories. Good jobs in all of these places so it was in congresses interest to have good budgets to support it. This was the engine of the arms race. You know, were going to live with the legacy of what happened for decades to come. Weve already spent countless billions of dollars cleaning up the mess that was made at rocky flats at hanford, oak ridge, smalle