IEER

Notes for:
"Always" the Target?
Science for Democratic Action Vol. 4 No. 3

2.L.R. Groves, Memorandum to the Secretary of War, "Atomic Fission Bombs," 23 April 1945, Record Group 77, Records of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942-1948, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Return to document.

3.Telephone interview with Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash, conducted by Arjun Makhijani on 15 February 1995. Return to document.

4.L. R. Groves, Military Policy Committee Minutes, 5 May 1943, Record Group 77, Records of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942-1948, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Return to document.

5.For instance it is cited in a footnote in Martin Sherwin, A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and the Origins of the Arms Race: Vintage Books, New York, 1987, p. 209. According to Sherwin the document was declassified in 1976. Return to document.

6.Telephone interview with Hans A. Bethe, Cornell University, conducted by Arjun Makhijani on 14 February 1995. Return to document.

7.Telephone interview with Glenn Seaborg, Associate Director at Large, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, conducted by Arjun Makhijani on 3 February 1995. Return to document.

8.Telephone interview with David Hawkins, conducted by Arjun Makhijani on 3 February 1995. Return to document.

9.The first meeting of the Target Committee was on 27 April 1945 and that of the Interim Committee (which considered policy issues) was on 9 May 1945. Return to document.

10.Military Policy Committee, "Report of August 21, 1943 On Present Status and Future Program on Atomic Fission Bombs," Record Group 77, Records of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942-1948, National Archives, Washington, D.C., p. 14. Return to document.

11.Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The New World: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume I 1939-1946, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA 1990, p. 253. Vincent Jones, the U.S. Army's historian of the Manhattan Project concurs with Hewlett and Anderson, stating that the B-29 was chosen in September 1943 and that this "seemed to imply that the bomb was to be used against Japan." Vincent Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, Center of Military History, United States Army, Government Printing Office, 1985, p. 510, footnote. Return to document.

12.Technical data on the Lancaster and B-29 bombers provided by Robert S. Norris, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C. Return to document.

13.Jones observes that that the commanding general of the Army Air Forces H.H. Arnold "stated emphatically that an American-made airplane should carry the bombs..." Jones 1985, p. 520. Return to document.

14.Military Policy Committee, "Report of August 21." Return to document.

15.Sherwin 1987, p. 145. Return to document.

16.Sherwin 1987, p. 145. Return to document.

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

Comments to Outreach Coordinator
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

Revised March 20, 1996
Updated with BAS link September 12, 2003