This event has been CANCELLED. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to reschedule for a later date.
The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies presents
BOOK TALK AND CELEBRATION: Warner Schilling and Ken Young, "Super Bomb: Organizational Conflict and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb"
Jonathan Schilling, son of Warner Schilling who assisted in the preparation and editing of Super Bomb
Robert Jervis, Member, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies; Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs, Columbia University
Stuart Gottlieb, Member, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies; Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs
Moderated by Richard Betts, Leo A. Shifrin Professor of War and Peace Studies and Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies; Director, International Security Policy Program
Monday, March 9, 2020
12:10pm-2:00pm
1302 International Affairs
Advance registration suggested via the Columbia/SIPA events calendars
This event is free and open to the public
Abstract
Super Bomb unveils the story of the events leading up to President Harry S. Truman’s 1950 decision to develop a “super,” or hydrogen, bomb. That fateful decision and its immediate consequences are detailed in a diverse and complete account built on newly released archives and previously hidden contemporaneous interviews with more than sixty political, military, and scientific figures who were involved in the decision. Ken Young and Warner R. Schilling present the expectations, hopes, and fears of the key individuals who lobbied for and against developing the H-bomb. They portray the conflicts that arose over the H-bomb as rooted in the distinct interests of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Los Alamos laboratory, the Pentagon and State Department, the Congress, and the White House. But as they clearly show, once Truman made his decision in 1950, resistance to the H-bomb opportunistically shifted to new debates about the development of tactical nuclear weapons, continental air defense, and other aspects of nuclear weapons policy. What Super Bomb reveals is that in many ways the H-bomb struggle was a proxy battle over the morality and effectiveness of strategic bombardment and the role and doctrine of the US Strategic Air Command.
