Abstract

A Tale of Two Bombs

The article discusses two books: "The Myths of August: A Personal Exploration of Our Tragic Cold War Affair With the atom," by Stewart L. Udall, and "Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956," by David Holloway. Lacking access to classified information, but making a careful study of every memoir and published recollection of all the principals, Udall proves that the decision to drop the atomic bomb on civilians flowed inexorably from the policy of secrecy surrounding every aspect of the development of the bomb. With the end of the cold war and the access to hitherto secret Soviet records, David Holloway has provided an equally riveting account of the origins of the Soviet atomic bomb that demonstrates that it was Hiroshima that impelled the Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to make the enormous social investment to create a nuclear industry of the magnitude of the Manhattan Project.