Churchill's Bomb

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Churchill's Bomb Page 50

by Graham Farmelo


  19Hermann et al. (1987: 107, 215–6, 431–8, 476, 486–7, 495, 498, 524).

  20Cockcroft, J. D., ‘Nuclear physics since Rutherford’, 6 November 1954, CKFT 4/21, pp. 7–9. Monk (2012: 537–47).

  21Chadwick to Bohr, 3 October 1952, NBI. The quotation is Chadwick’s statement of Lindemann’s view.

  22Cockcroft to his mother, 3 September 1954, CKFTFAMILY.

  23Cockcroft to his mother, 17 December 1954, CKFTFAMILY.

  24Jenkins (2001: 890).

  25Moran (1966: 508).

  26‘Ismay Pledges Political Reign on Atom War’, Washington Post, 16 December 1954, p. 2; ‘NATO Has Cast the Die for an Atomic Defense’, New York Times, 19 December 1954, p. E5.

  27WSC to Eisenhower, 12 January 1955, Boyle (ed.) (1990: 184–6).

  28Cockcroft to his mother, 1 January 1955, CKFTFAMILY. See also ‘Churchill Goes to Atom Works’, Daily Mail, 31 December 1954, p. 1.

  29Hartcup and Allibone (1984: 196).

  30‘Churchill Goes to Atom Works’, Daily Mail, 31 December 1954, p. 1.

  Churchill’s nuclear swansong

  1Daily Telegraph, 3 March 1955.

  2Jenkins (2001: 875–6); Shuckburgh (1986: 158).

  3Lindemann to WSC, 13 April 1954, PREM 11/785, NA.

  4‘Return to Sanity in Warfare?’, Manchester Guardian, 14 May 1954, p. 9.

  5Lanouette (1992: 317).

  6Lindemann to WSC, 20 May 1954, LIND J146/47.

  7FRUS 1952–4, Vol. 6, Memorandum of meeting between WSC and Eisenhower, 25 June 1954, pp. 1085–6. Larres (2002: 338–40).

  8Colville (1985: 653); Moran (1966: 573).

  9Hennessy (2006: 346–53).

  10Catterall (ed.) (2003: 326–8); CHBIO, Vol. 8, pp. 1020–1.

  11Catterall (ed.) (2003: 342).

  12Eisenhower to WSC, 22 July 1954, and the subsequent correspondence in Boyle (ed.) (1990: 162–8).

  13Larres (2002: 363).

  14Haslam (2011: 149–50).

  15Larres (2002: 218).

  16Moran (1966: 628).

  17Hennessy (2010: 163–5).

  18WSC comment, 12 December 1954, on briefing by Brook, 10 December 1954, DEFE 13/45, NA.

  19Butler (1971: 176).

  20Addison (1992: 420).

  21WSC to Commons, 23 February 1955, HNSRD.

  22Goodwin, P. C. (2005) ‘Low Conspiracy? Government Interference in the BBC’, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, Vol. 2 (1), pp. 96–118. See pp. 101–4.

  23Moran (1966: 633).

  24Diary entry for Clementine Churchill, 1 March 1955, CSCT 4/4.

  25This account of his speech is taken mainly from Moran (1966: 635–7) and from the reports published on 2 March 1955 in the Manchester Guardian, The Times, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, which published the speech in full.

  26WSC to Shaw, 18 August 1946, CHBIO, Vol. 8, p. 254.

  27Wheeler-Bennett (1969: 119–20); Colville (1985: 596).

  Epilogue 1: Churchill’s nuclear scientists

  1Bohr (1961: 1115).

  2Moss (1987: 227–31).

  3Russell to Einstein, 11 February 1955: http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/Spokesman/PDF/85russein.pdf; Clark (1975: 540–1).

  4Oppenheimer (1964a).

  5BMFRS of Oliphant (2001); Biographical Memoirs of the Australian Academy of Science, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2003, http://www.science.org.au/fellows/memoirs/oliphant.html.

  6Quoted in Cockburn and Ellyard (1981: 134).

  7See ‘Patrick Blackett’ by Michael Howard, in Baylis and Garnett (eds) (1991: 153–63).

  8BMFRS of Blackett, November 1975, pp. 74–6.

  9Edgerton (2006: 216–20).

  10Hill to Blackett, AVHL II 4/10.

  11‘The Hydrogen Bomb’, Third Programme talk, 14 March 1950, GPT F169/13, see p. 3. For Churchill’s version of the analogy, 4 April 1926: CHAR 1/188, f. 25.

  12Brown (1997: 340–53), see pp. 347 and 349.

  13Skemp (1978: 492n).

  14BMFRS of Gowing (2012), pp. 76–8.

  15Chadwick, J., ‘Comments on Mrs Gowing’s 2nd Volume’, CHAD IV 14/11, p. 12.

  16Oppenheimer lecture ‘Niels Bohr and His Times’, OPPY B247 F3, p. 11.

  17Frisch to Genia Peierls, 30 April 1978, FRISCH F94/9.

  18Peierls (1985: 204–5).

  19Moss (1987: 230).

  20Lee (ed.) (2009: 756–7).

  21Groves (1962: 407–8).

  22Chadwick to A. C. Todd, 31 January 1951, CHAD IV 13/1.

  23Chadwick to Conant, undated, CHAD IV 13/1.

  24Howard (1974).

  25BMFRS of Hinton, December 1990, p. 226.

  26Priestley, J. B., ‘Britain and Nuclear Bombs’, New Statesman, 2 November 1957, pp. 554–6; Clark (1975: 557).

  27Cathcart (1994: 276).

  28Arnold (2012).

  29Pugwash Newsletter, Vol. 44, No. 2, October 2007 – this edition gives the full list of participants from 1957–2007 on pp. 39–155.

  30Rowe, A. P., review of Science and Government by C. P. Snow, marked ‘Published by Time and Tide’, ROWE.

  31Clark (1965: 416).

  Epilogue 2: Churchill and his Prof

  1Lees-Milne (1994: 54).

  2Lindemann to WSC, 1 March 1955, LIND J146/18, 21, 24.

  3Moran (1966: 699).

  4The figure concerns his books and articles, not the speeches. ‘Datelines’, Finest Hour, number 129, Winter 2005–6, p. 9.

  5WSC to his wife, 30 January 1956, reproduced in Soames (ed.) (1998: 603).

  6Montague Browne (1995: 217, 230).

  7Montague Browne (1995: 220, 284).

  8Payn and Morley (1982: 323).

  9Montague Browne (1995: 220–1).

  10Montague Browne (1995: 222).

  11Birkenhead (1961: 329).

  12Fort (2004: 334–5).

  13Lindemann, letter to The Times, 21 May 1957.

  14Birkenhead (1961: 333–5).

  15Moran (1966: 729). See also WSC to Alan Lennox-Boyd, 3 July 1957, CHUR 2/214.

  16Birkenhead (1961: 335); Harrod (1959: 276).

  17Moran (1966: 703).

  18Oppenheimer (1964b).

  19Lees-Milne (1994: 54). The script for Dr Strangelove: http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0055.html.

  20Lees-Milne (1994: 54).

  21WSC to Clemmie, c.11 October 1957, Soames (ed.) (1998: 621).

  22Plowden to WSC, 29 July 1957, CHUR 2/531.

  23Montague Browne (1995: 310).

  24Walsh (1998: 170–5).

  25Quoted in Cockcroft’s review of Birkenhead (1961), Sunday Times, 5 November 1961.

  26Cockcroft, ‘The Foundation of Churchill College’, CKFT 12/78, p. 2.

  27CHSPCH, Vol. 8, pp. 8704–6. WSC visited the Churchill College site on 17 October 1959.

  28Correspondence and press coverage of the debate is in RVJO B.382 and AVHL I 2/5.

  29Snow (1962: 35–6).

  30Gilbert (2005: 446).

  31Sir Burke Trend to Montague Browne, 22 July 1963, CHUR 2/506.

  32Montague Browne to W. J. McIndoe, 8 August 1963, CHUR 2/506.

  33W. J. McTudor to Montague Browne, 20 September 1963, and Sir Burke Trend to Montague Browne, 22 July 1963, CHUR 2/506.

  34Montague Browne to W. J. McIndoe, 21 September 1963, CHUR 2/506.

  35Montague Browne to W. J. McIndoe, 21 September 1963, CHUR 2/506.

  36Montague Browne (1995: 326); Jenkins (2001: 911–12).

  37Coote, C. R. (1965) Obituary supplement in the Daily Telegraph, pp. ii–xv, see p. xi.

  38Muller (ed.) (2009: 259–66).

  39WSC to H. G. Wells, 9 October 1906, WELLS c.238.2.

  Acknowledgements

  1WSC speaking at Grosvenor House, London, on receiving the Sunday Times Book Prize for the first two volumes of his memoir of the Second World War, CHUR 5/28A, f. 7.

  Index

  Works by Winston Churchill (WSC) appear directly under title; works by others under author’s name.

  Titles and
ranks are generally the highest mentioned in the text.

  Abdication crisis (1936), 86

  Academic Assistance Council (British), 68–70, 73, 77

  Admiralty: WSC heads, 24–5, 110, 113–14; scientific advisers, 115

  Adventures in Science (US radio programme), 100

  Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy (British), 313, 315, 333

  Advisory Committee on Uranium (USA), 129, 132–3

  Air Defence Research Committee (British), 83–5, 91, 112

  Akers, Wallace: takes over MAUD project as ‘Tube Alloys’, 199–200, 201, 210–11; qualities and interests, 211; negotiates in USA, 212–13, 215–16; proposes fusing Tube Alloys with US project, 214–15, 230; Groves subdues, 218; and threat of German nuclear development, 221; letter to Groves, 222; and US terms limiting collaboration with Anglo-Canadians, 222–4; on winning over Lindemann, 222; with Anderson on Washington visit, 236; withdraws from US position, 249; on Bohr–Einstein meeting in Princeton (December 1943), 253; on Chadwick’s distrust, 285; not appointed to Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy, 313; Blackett criticises, 315; death, 438

  Alamein, El, Battle of (1942), 219

  Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount, 301

  Aldermaston: Atomic Energy Research Station, 371; WSC visits, 419, 451; Easter protest marches to, 442

  Aldrich, Winthrop, 379

  Alexander, Albert Victor, Viscount (later Earl), 325–6, 371

  Allier, Jacques, 143

  Anderson, Sir John (later 1st Viscount Waverley): WSC discusses nuclear weapons with, 6; background and qualities, 190–1; WSC appoints to head British nuclear project, 190; favours building bomb in USA, 191; and Roosevelt’s proposal to cooperate on nuclear project, 195, 203–4, 206–7; informs WSC of collapse of agreement with Roosevelt, 210; selects Akers to run Tube Alloys, 212; absent from Akers’ visit to USA, 213; accepts Akers’ proposal to merge Tube Alloys with US project, 214–15; and US limitations on collaboration, 224; and Bush’s visit to London, 231; co-drafts paper for consideration at WSC–Roosevelt Quebec meeting, 232; on US exclusion of British from Bomb project, 235; negotiates nuclear agreement with USA, 236–7, 240–1; at Quebec conference, 239; admiration for Bohr, 245; welcomes Bohr to London, 246, 248, 249; arranges Bohr’s visit to Lord Halifax in Washington, 259; and Bohr’s views on nuclear policy, 260–1; on Dale’s letter to WSC about Bohr, 262; and American deal for acquiring uranium, 267, 270; declines Chadwick’s plea for action, 278; sympathises wirh French requests for patent rights, 284; memo from Chadwick on post-war nuclear policy, 285; on WSC’s limited scientific understanding, 292; and WSC’s speech on dropping of Bomb, 304; chairs Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy, 313, 315; attacks Blackburn for revelations, 316; criticises Blackett’s views, 329; on Blackett’s membership of Advisory Committee, 333–4; and WSC’s exclusion of Blackett from nuclear programme, 333; and WSC’s justification for using Bomb, 337; and Fuchs case, 356; in WSC’s account of nuclear project in The Hinge of Fate, 363; viscountcy, 403; introduces Lindemann to Lords, 448; death, 450

  Appleton, Edward, 85, 121, 123, 124, 191, 199–201, 313

  Armaments Research Department (British), 368

  Arnim, Elizabeth von, 21–3

  Arnold, Lorna, 441–2

  Asquith, Herbert Henry, 1st Earl, 24

  Athenia, SS, 110

  Atlantic, Battle of the, 148, 206, 220, 221

  Atlantic Charter, 189

  Atlantic Monthly, The, 328

  atom: first split, 55, 57, 63

  Atom Train (Britain), 351

  atomic bombs: named and conceived by H. G. Wells, 15, 21, 23; see nuclear weapons

  Atomic Energy Authority (UK): established, 404; Plowden heads, 414

  Atomic Energy Commission (USA), 346

  Atomic Energy Intelligence Estimates Unit (British), 388

  Atomic Scientists’ Association (British), 319, 351, 361, 364, 413

  Attlee, Clement (later 1st Earl): and Truman’s unwillingness to sustain Quebec Agreement, 8, 361–2, 364, 386; as wartime Lord Privy Seal, 147; attacks WSC, 295; in 1945 election campaign, 296; knew little about Manhattan Project at Potsdam conference, 298; appoints Blackett adviser on nuclear policy, 312; prepares nuclear-energy policy, 312–14; meets Truman and Mackenzie King, 316–17; nationalisation programme, 319; complains to Truman of McMahon Act, 321; determination to keep British Bomb project secret, 322, 325–6, 371–2; accepts building of British Bomb, 324–5; meets Blackett, 323–4; consults WSC for nuclear advice, 333; proposes Truman share US nuclear knowledge through UN, 334; disavows WSC’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, 336; in General Election (1950), 351, 353; on Fuchs case, 356; sanctions British participation in Korean War, 357; visits Washington to protest at apparent threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Korea, 360; WSC questions on Anglo-US nuclear collaboration, 361–2; announces 1951 election, 373; conceals cost of nuclear project, 382–3; Lindemann supports nuclear programme, 382; WSC compliments on first British Bomb test, 388; in H-bomb debate (1954), 423; attends WSC’s funeral, 455

  Austria: Germany occupies (1938), 90

  Aydelotte, Frank, 252–3

  Baldwin, Stanley (later 1st Earl): appoints WSC Chancellor of Exchequer, 32; differences with WSC, 38; on bomber ‘getting through’, 45; overlooks WSC for Cabinet post, 86–7

  Balfour, Arthur James, 1st Earl, 27

  Baruch, Bernard, 322–3, 328, 357

  Battle of Britain (1940), 153, 164, 166, 169–70

  BBC see British Broadcasting Corporation

  Beaverbrook, William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron: friendship with WSC, 87; WSC confesses exhaustion to, 263; agrees with Attlee’s criticism of WSC, 295; WSC stays with in France, 447

  Becquerel, Henri, 21

  Beria, Lavrenti, 302

  Berlin: Soviet blockade, 327

  Berlin, (Sir) Isaiah, 61

  Bermuda: WSC meets Eisenhower in, 404–6

  Bethe, Hans, 281, 286, 289

  Beveridge, William (later Baron), 68, 74

  Bevin, Ernest, 324–5

  Bikini Atoll: nuclear tests, 368

  Biotechnology, rudiments in WSC article (1931), 42

  Birkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of: The World in 2030 AD, 42

  Birkenhead, Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of: biography of Lindemann, 453

  Birmingham: proposed institute of advanced technology, 451

  Birmingham University, 6, 124, 137–9, 165, 219, 257, 346, 440

  Blackburn, Raymond, 315–16, 361

  Blackett, Patrick, Baron: Socialist views and activities, 52, 64, 314; relations with Lindemann, 63–4; Szilárd discusses chain reactions with, 76; and air defence of Britain, 84, 85; as experimental physicist, 63–4, 157, 329; complains of government mishandling of scientists, 159; as operational researcher, 220; favours collaboration with USA, 185–6; on MAUD report, 191, 212; friendship with Cripps, 208; condemns carpet-bombing of Germany, 220; scepticism over nuclear weapon, 221, 250; WSC vetoes visit to USSR, 296; on dropping of Bomb, 309–12; opposes British participation in Manhattan Project, 310; appointed adviser on nuclear policy, 312–13, 315, 333; wartime research and endeavours, 314–15; writes on nuclear weapons policy, 316, 325, 327–8; out of favour with government, 318; advocates Soviet rights, 318; opposes Anglo-US control proposals, 323; proposes Britain renounce nuclear weapons, 324; wins Nobel Prize for physics, 327, 328, 329; views criticised, 328–9; scientific achievements, 329; WSC opposes appointment to Advisory Committee, 333–4; WSC vetoes honorary degree, 334; insists on nuclear project being under Ministry of Supply, 364; advocates development of civil nuclear power, 390; Cockcroft supports, 413; supports establishment of CERN, 416; later career, 436–7; membership of Pugwash, 443; Military and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy, 327–8, 436

  Bletchley Park: breaks German Enigma codes, 148

  Bohr, Aage, 247, 251, 253, 256

  Bohr, Niels: meets WSC, 7, 262, 264–5, 281, 288, 438–9, 450, 454; foresees nuclear arms race, 8; and quantum ph
ysics, 37; Einstein on, 38, 95; on nuclear fission, 95, 98–9, 103, 111; as Rutherford’s protégé, 95; as director of Institute for Theoretical Physics, 96; qualities and character, 96, 247; visits to USA, 98, 251; on setting up nuclear chain reactions, 102; returns to Europe (1939), 103; unaware of Nazi initiative in nuclear development, 104; safety in war, 161; escapes to England (1943), 245–6; Chadwick’s daughter Joanna on, 245; appointed special consultant to Tube Alloys, 247–9, 252; concern over political implications of Bomb, 248, 266, 281–2, 313, 358; British scientists complain to of neglect, 250; declines post at IAS Princeton, 252–3; visits Site Y and Oak Ridge, 253–7, 281; and principle of complementarity, 258; view of impact of nuclear policy, 258–61; advocates allowing Soviet Russia to share knowledge of Bomb project, 271; meets Roosevelt, 271, 281, 450; cleared of suspicion in USA, 273; and WSC’s limited scientific understanding, 292; letter from Peierls on spying, 352; WSC meets in Denmark, 358–9; proposes locating CERN in Denmark, 416; invokes Rutherford, 435; post-war campaigning, 443; Gowing account of Bohr–WSC meeting in 1944, 454

  Bonham Carter, Lady Violet, 65

  Boot, Harry, 140

  Born, Max, 50

  Bowen, Edward George (‘Taffy’), 164–5

  Bracken, Brendan, 45, 295, 304

  Bragg, Lawrence, 120

  Bragg, Sir William, 171

  Bricker, John, 351

  Briggs, Lyman, 129, 132, 197

  Britain: builds atom bomb, 8; war preparations, 110–11; invasion threat to, 153, 176; ‘enemy aliens’ interned, 162; Battle of Britain, 169–70; US view of, 127, 205; US excludes from nuclear weapons development, 226–8, 234; argues for possession of Bomb after war, 229, 231, 318, 324–5; early plans for post-Bomb development of nuclear power, 241; access to uranium ore supplies, 267, 269; attacked by German V weapons, 268–9; and likely US post-war dominance, 270; post-war nuclear plans, 284–5; and public announcements on dropping of Bomb, 309, 312; post-war austerity, 319; Commons announcement on building Bomb, 325–6; diminished power, 331; US air bases in, 357, 361–2; Penney heads Bomb project, 368–70; first nuclear test (October 1952), 388; under Soviet threat of nuclear attack, 388–9; and development of nuclear power plants, 390–6; development and acquisition of H-bomb, 425, 428; detonates H-bomb, 441

  British Association for the Advancement of Science: Leicester meeting (1933), 74

 

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