For immediate release July 17, 2023

"'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?"

A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick, Greg Mello, and community members in Los Alamos, July 22, 6:30 pm

Contact: Greg Mello, 505-265-1200 office, 505-577-8563 cell

*"General Leslie Groves, when visiting Los Alamos, frequently came to the Chadwicks for dinner and relaxed palaver. During one such conversation Groves said that, of course, the real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets." (Joseph Rotblat, "Leaving the Bomb Project," in Assessing the Nuclear Age: Selections from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Len Ackland and Steven McGuire, eds., 1986.)

Permalink * Prior press releases

Albuquerque -- We hope you will join us in a discussion in Los Alamos on July 22 at 6:30 pm (Mountain Time) in Fuller Lodge (2132 Central Ave, map).

Especially for those who do not live in the region, the meeting will be live-streamed to those who register in advance. Only the live audience will be able to ask questions.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtc-2trjsjHNOjGquQDeq020XeeaZBHZgf. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with further information about joining the meeting.

Our discussion will be both historical and profoundly current.

During World War II, the perception that (then-Soviet) Russia might -- or would -- need "subduing" after World War II was never far from the minds of many conservatives and Manhattan Project leaders, including General Groves. Later, he famously said:

“I think it is also important to state -- I think it is well known -- that there was never from about two weeks from the time I took charge of this project any illusion on my part but that Russia was our enemy and that the project was conducted on that basis.” (Testimony "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer”, Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board, Washington, DC, April 12, 1954 to May 6, 1954, p.173 [p.183 in pdf] http://bit.ly/1x9T6dQ)

Even during the war Groves said more, among friends. Joseph Rotblat, whom we knew, recalled a March 1944 dinner conversation:

"In March 1944 I experienced a disagreeable shock. At that time I was living with the Chadwicks in their house on the Mesa, before moving later to the "Big House:' the quarters for single scientists. General Leslie Groves, when visiting Los Alamos, frequently came to the Chadwicks for dinner and relaxed palaver. During one such conversation Groves said that, of course, the real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets. (Whatever his exact words, his real meaning was clear.) Although I had no illusions about the Stalin regime-after all, it was his pact with Hitler that enabled the latter to invade Poland-I felt deeply the sense of betrayal of an ally. Remember, this was said at a time when thousands of Russians were dying every day on the Eastern Front, tying down the Germans and giving the Allies time to prepare for the landing on the continent of Europe. Until then I had thought that our work was to prevent a Nazi victory, and now I was told that the weapon we were preparing was intended for use against the people who were making extreme sacrifices for that very aim.

My concern about the purpose of our work gained substance from conversations with Niels Bohr. He used to come to my room at eight in the morning to listen to the BBC news bulletin. Like myself, he could not stand the U.S. bulletins which urged us every few seconds to purchase a certain laxative! I owned a special radio on which I could receive the BBC World Service. Sometimes Bohr stayed on and talked to me about the social and political implications of the discovery of nuclear energy and of his worry about the dire consequences of a nuclear arms race between East and West which he foresaw.

All this, and the growing evidence that the war in Europe would be over before the bomb project was completed, made my participation in it pointless. If it took the Americans such a long time, then my fear of the Germans being first was groundless.

When it became evident, toward the end of 1944, that the Germans had abandoned their bomb project, the whole purpose of my being in Los Alamos ceased to be, and I asked for permission to leave and return to Britain"

(Joseph Rotblat, "Leaving the Bomb Project," in Assessing the Nuclear Age: Selections from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Len Ackland and Steven McGuire, eds., 1986, emphasis added)

It is significant and important that this event is in Los Alamos, where the largest investments in the world are being made to produce a) additional, and b) new nuclear warheads.* (*Other countries are also investing, but here in the U.S., thanks mostly to the uniquely weak bargaining position of government relative to contractors, the work is hyper-expensive and fraught with problems. See "Structural Features Making NNSA an Unusual Federal Agency," White House memo for VP Biden, 2016. In our view, LANL has no rational role in pit production; LANL's huge new mission is entirely a political product. See " NNSA's effort to restart plutonium warhead "pit" production will cost more than the Manhattan Project. Why is NNSA trying to build two pit factories at once -- one that is adequate, and one that is not?," press backgrounder, May 27, 2023.)

The scale of the investments at Los Alamos, principally for manufacturing, can be seen in prior press releases and in the background available here. LANL is the best-funded facility for nuclear warheads in the world.

A second press release later today will provide an update to LANL's anticipated growth and the anticipated further geographical dispersal of the laboratory itself.

Why are we doing this?

• What happened in 1945 and the years immediately following is terribly relevant today as militant U.S. leaders have put the U.S. in a state of proxy war and "near-war" with Russia AGAIN, echoing what anti-New-Dealers and a cabal of capitalists and military leaders, including Groves, did then. Dr. Kuznick will help us all understand this better than most of us now do.

• Unlike in the late 1940s, Russia is now a peer nuclear state. It has a robust economy and arguably a more unified polity than does the U.S. or NATO. From the realist perspective, what is being done by our leaders today is quite dangerous, as we document and discuss daily here.

• For decades, the (Trinity-)Hiroshima-Nagasaki anniversaries have focused largely on the past. To the extent they have focused on the present and future, that focus has not usually been concrete. It is past time for the sharp realization that we are living in a crucial moment in living nuclear history, with events taking place right here and now in our neighborhood, events that distantly echo those of 1945. We can't change the past. The only time in which we can act is the present, and the only place we can powerfully act is where we stand.

• This state of near-war with Russia has dramatic ramifications in our own region and for the U.S. as a whole. The crash program to build new pits at LANL is falsely portrayed as necessary to deter (a resurgent, malevolent) Russia.

• We believe that if the present national security narratives are not challenged, humanity and most of the biosphere could well be destroyed. There is no better time or place to do so than here, and now. History does not often provide such a wonderful, clear-cut, opportunity to a specific region and group of people to avoid a looming catastrophe.

• The wasteful, poorly-strategized LANL program is beset with problems, as NNSA and congressionally-mandated independent reviewers foresaw in 2017 and 2019. The largest capital endeavor in the history of New Mexico -- which, due to its scale and shocking purpose has the potential to paralyze all competing political agendas, deepening the state's social problems -- should be discussed far more than it is. We will continue to do that, including at this event.

• The Study Group began with public discussions on some of these same topics in October 1989, also at Fuller Lodge. This continues that tradition.

***ENDS***