The Revolt of the American Nuclear Physicists

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 Alamos Gordas², 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

Notes