All language subtitles for _The Bomb_ (Documentary) Nuclear weapons - BBC 2017 (360p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC).inglés

[Music]

seventy years ago

the nuclear bomb altered our reality

forever

for the first time in human history we

now were capable

of our own destruction as a species

the bomb affects everything it was the

opening shot of the cold war

all u.s citizens are now going to have

to be on high alert

radio alert the bomb produces some of

the worst

psychological tension ever in world

history

an international arms race

confrontations and close calls

politics culture even sex

[Music]

there was a kind of thrilling excitement

about it

fire entire

industries were created to build this

incredible energy opens limitless

horizons

new cameras film stocks and techniques

devised to photograph it

now thanks to state-of-the-art

restoration of original film masters

we can see the incredible power of this

device

in a new way a technology that has

changed human existence

forever the bomb has receded in the

public's imagination

but it's still there we still live in

its shadow

everybody's affected by it there's no

place to hide

it is an environmental issue it's a

political issue

it's a moral issue it is the most

important issue that we face

the bomb

the bomb was made possible in part by

contributions to your pbs station from

viewers like you thank you

it first appeared in the new mexico

desert

[Music]

a place the spanish called cornada del

of the dead

here miles and miles from anywhere

the bomb came to life

the exact spot is inaccessible hidden

inside a 3 000 square mile weapons range

but for a few hours once every year it's

open to the public

they come from all over like pilgrims to

a shrine

to see and stand in the spot where the

nuclear

age began where the modern era started

it's probably what it is turning point

would be actually

at ground zero where it actually

happened it's world history too it

changed

it changed everything

the bomb that was tested here 70 years

ago

turned night into day and set the world

on a new

and dangerous path it was a beginning

that would lead to over a thousand

nuclear explosions through five decades

test after test in desert landscapes

on tiny islands

a cold war that brought the world to the

brink

and produced an enormous stockpile of

bombs

most of which could destroy in one

instant a city and much

more

sixty thousand nuclear weapons between

the united states and the soviet union

if something should go wrong the

consequences would be catastrophic

not simply for one nation or another but

for mankind

no less than the discovery of fire the

bomb

marks a dividing line between all that

came before

and everything that follows nuclear war

would

entail the end of civilization this was

a millennial change in human affairs

everyone was at risk

the force that first appeared on this

spot

a power greater than we can imagine

where did it come from how did it all

[Music]

start

the understanding of how the world

worked was being

revolutionized and in 1938

in germany and it's important to

emphasize

in germany the greatest revolution of

all occurred

in berlin two german chemists otto han

and fritz strassmann discover that

bombarding uranium with neutrons

creates a different substance barium

they have no idea why but a friend

physicist

lisa meitner suddenly realizes they have

split

the nucleus of the uranium atom what she

calls fission

mightner publishes her conclusion in the

scientific journal nature

the news begins spreading through the

international physics community

the implications of that were obvious to

physicists

all over the world out of a little bit

of material

it can produce an enormous amount of

energy

[Music]

the timing could not be worse nazi

germany is on the rise

adolf hitler is about to start world war

ii

[Applause]

as physicists around the world digest

lisa meitner's news

they quickly realized this discovery

nuclear fission could determine the

outcome of the war

uranium can be fissioned when hit with a

neutron producing the tremendous amount

of energy

a lot of energy for einstein's equation

a equals mc squared

every physicist knew all over the world

an

atomic bomb could be built by the nazis

after all the discovery had been made in

germany germany had very good physicists

maybe hitler's building the bomb the

threat of germany getting a bomb

first is so unthinkable

hey we're in a race with the germans

perhaps

but so far the race is only in the

scientists minds

no one else understands the danger of a

bomb

that doesn't yet exist physicist

leo zillard is convinced the only way to

stop hitler

is to get the bomb first

zillard dictates a letter a warning

about the threat

of a nazi atomic bomb

and he thought that the best strategy

would be to get albert einstein the most

famous scientist in the world to sign a

letter to the president franklin

roosevelt

and get things moving zillard's letter

and einstein's fame

do the trick president franklin

roosevelt authorizes a project

to research uranium

[Music]

two years later the japanese attacked

pearl harbor

hitler declares war on the us

america is fighting two wars against

germany and europe

japan in the pacific

suddenly roosevelt's uranium research

project

is critically important what began as

scientific

inquiry is about to become a crash

program

to build a bomb

[Music]

the bomb had its roots in many places

all of them managed by the u.s army

corps of engineers

in this building on broadway in new york

city the engineers set up an office

on the 18th floor the largest government

scientific project in history begins to

take

shape to keep its real purpose secret

the project is named after the engineer

district where it's located

manhattan

ultimately over half a million people

will contribute to the manhattan project

they'll be led by this man leslie

richard groves

army engineer groves has been in charge

of building the pentagon

and internment camps for japanese

americans

now he's itching for the next step in

his career

and overseas combat assignment

then groves gets a surprise update from

his boss

i have a project for you and groves

realizes what it is

oh no not that thing no

he's ready to go overseas and he's very

disappointed

developing an imaginary bomb based on

invisible particles that will probably

never work

seems like a career dead end but

hey you do what you're told you do what

you're told and you do it

to the best of your ability and he put

his foot on the accelerator and

never let up but first he negotiates a

raise

he says i'm gonna have to be a general i

mean these scientists encouraged would

respect me if i'm just a colonel

now he gets to work friday day one

purchase 1200 tons of uranium ore

saturday negotiate special top priority

rating for the project

monday meet with presidential science

advisor vannevar bush

wednesday go to tennessee

by 56 000 acres of land for factories

next visit universities and meet

scientists

columbia harold yuri university of

chicago

arthur compton berkeley california

ernest lawrence back to washington

groves has put in motion what will

become a vast industrial complex

in less than two months

[Music]

there's only one thing missing the bomb

itself

it'll be years before there's nuclear

fuel ready

the uranium has produced one tiny

particle at a time

but when that fuel is ready groves will

need a design

for a bomb that works and for that

he needs scientists

he's been meeting plenty of them at

columbia chicago

berkeley no question they're smart

but they just rub him the wrong way

uh he's a military man so we've got a

clash of cultures here

groves was a very smart man

and knew a lot about a lot of things but

he didn't know much about physics

he also had a pretty thin skin about

people looking down on him who

who had phds which he didn't have

eggheads he thinks that

these these guys are up in the clouds

they're not very practical their

politics are

for the most part suspect they talk too

much

what about security here this is going

to be a big secret here

they're blabbing all over the place

amongst themselves

they're gonna have to be put in put in

shape

groves needs a scientist he can work

with

someone who can turn theories into a

working bomb

and run a lab and manage a team of the

most brilliant

and can tankers minds ever assembled in

one place

[Music]

against the advice of most of the senior

physicists in america

he chose robert oppenheimer oppenheimer

oppenheimer ran graduate seminars of 15

people

that was it he couldn't run a hamburger

stand i mean he had no

administrative record groza's security

people were totally against oppenheimer

they were appalled

his wife's a communist his brother's a

communist

sister-in-law is a communist

[Music]

and yet the no-nonsense general senses

something in this brilliant dreamer

that strikes a chord oppenheimer was

very good at explaining things and

oppenheimer

explained things so beautifully and so

respectfully to general groves

that groves just was dazzled and decided

this is my man

it was a brilliant decision and

insightful

oppenheimer understood better than any

of the others

what needed to be done and oppenheimer

saw in groves

something absolutely essential which was

grove's ability

to get oppenheimer anything you wanted

any person

any resources anything general leslie

groves

and dr robert oppenheimer complete

opposites

yet each in his own way a virtuoso

together

are made for this moment the two of them

were bound together and both saw

in each other what i call the route to

immortality

[Music]

it's 1942 groves has his lead scientist

now he needs a special kind of uranium

u235

the only substance that can make an

atomic explosion

natural uranium u-238 won't work

and that's a problem the uranium

that you dig out of the ground has only

about

seven tenths of one percent u235

so we then had to figure out a way

to separate u-235 from u-238

you can't do it chemically because it's

all uranium

groves builds a huge complex at oak

ridge tennessee

to produce u-235

but it's agonizingly slow getting u-235

is not difficult in tiny quantities but

since you have to get them one

atom at a time it is an enormous

task to do that

just one bomb will need pounds of the

stuff

getting it one atom at a time will take

years

but chemist glenn seborg finds another

option

plutonium it can be produced faster than

uranium

in a nuclear reactor

[Music]

so groves builds another complex

reactors at hanford washington

to produce plutonium

but all this will take time

and both wars are going badly

in the pacific the japanese capture the

philippines

they force 60 000 weak and starving pows

to walk 60 miles with little food or

water

the baton death march

if you stopped you were killed if you

just couldn't take another step forward

you died

and how did they kill you either

bayoneted you to death

shot you or decapitated you depending on

how they felt at that moment

the war with germany is just as bad

german u-boats are creating havoc in the

atlantic

[Music]

hitler's armies occupy europe north

africa

and are hammering the soviet union

[Music]

and no one knows how close the nazis are

to an atomic bomb

groves is of course consumed by this

question of what the germans are up to

the nazis are already committing

unspeakable atrocities

if adolf hitler gets the bomb he will be

[Music]

unstoppable

the bomb came out of the minds of men

to create it they would need isolation

freedom from distraction

and utmost secrecy

here deep in the jemez mountains they

could think their thoughts

work numbers follow the equations

los alamos new mexico where the

scientists worked

was created by and for the bomb

today only a few traces of its

beginnings remain

an old mess hall

an army barracks

robert oppenheimer's house

the main lodge of what was once a

private boys school

in 1942 oppenheimer tells groves

this is the perfect place for a secret

laboratory

up on a mesa in the middle of a national

forest

with only one telephone line to the

outside world

it's isolated we'll keep these

scientists away from

what they're used to and we can keep our

eye on them

so they close the school boom and we can

get going right away

now oppenheimer must convince some of

the best science talent in america

to move to the middle of nowhere and

live behind

barbed wire for the indefinite future

they needed a good salesman to encourage

these people to come to los alamos

and oppenheimer was very good at that

eventually

thousands will be recruited to work on

the bomb

hal bell was an aeronautical engineer

lily hornick and her husband don were

scientists

for all of them joining the project

began

with a mysterious cryptic conversation

here's this major sitting behind a desk

and he said i have a very neat job for

you

but we only take volunteers well tell me

about it he's i can't

don was asked how would you like another

job

don said well you have to tell me a

little more and he said well i can't

tell me where i'd be cause i can't which

direction in the country north south

west and i can't tell you any of that

just tell me what i'd be doing he said i

can't i said do you think i'm going to

volunteer you're out of your

cotton-picking wine

i'm not going to risk my future on

something i know absolutely nothing

about that's ridiculous

so he said hornig you know there's

posters in the post office that uncle

sam is pointing his finger at you

don't thought that was very corny but we

got the message

so the next day i was on my way to oak

ridge tennessee

yet even in the midst of a national

emergency some assets

are ignored the women at los alamos ran

the schools the libraries they did a lot

of the calculations

but this was a male environment

some women do work as typists and

machine operators

but of more than 400 scientists at los

alamos

less than 10 are women lily hornig is

one they said how fast do you type and i

said i don't type and they said

what makes you think you can have a job

i said i'm a chemist with a master's

degree

and a year of work experience and

eventually they've turned up a job in

the chemistry division

so they took some women but they made it

very clear that we were not top drawer

the first lesson everyone learns is

secrecy

officially los alamos doesn't exist it's

called

site y or the hill

the bomb is referred to only as the

gadget

you only need to know enough to do your

job and know more

and don't be inquisitive about anything

more

everything was hush-hush go where you're

told

and there was no preliminary information

given to me

they knew exactly who i was and why i

was there

and that was better than i knew

i knew very little about the project i

just picked up rumors about their

building balloons up there

submarines you did not

talk about bombs atoms uranium

you just didn't say that my wife didn't

know what we were doing

oak oakridge tennessee where uranium is

produced has been created nearly

overnight

this was a town that one year before had

just been a farm

and suddenly was a large city with 70

000 people houses streets

[Music]

los alamos new mexico is far more remote

and much less developed one of the

scientists here

hugh bradner has a movie camera

the bradner home movies offer a rare

glimpse of life at los alamos

the films are remarkable because they

exist at all

a look inside the most secret facility

in the world

hidden deep in the remote west

many of these people had come from you

know urban academic

places and here they were living a

rather

primitive life the living conditions

were rough western

you could turn on the water tap and

worms were as likely as water to come

out

there was mud during the rainy season

on the other hand there were parties and

the oppenheimer was a great lab leader

and the punch was spiked with 100

lab alcohol so it became

exciting their average

age is 25 and they know their work

may be the only thing that can prevent a

nazi atomic bomb

i came to this country at the age of 12

from hitler germany

and my motivation was very much

tied to that all of them were told that

they could shorten the war

through their efforts and that was

enough to know at the time

by spring 1944 they have a design

it resembles a gun two chunks of nuclear

fuel

will be slammed together creating a

critical mass

and a nuclear explosion

[Music]

it's simple but there's not enough fuel

to test it

uranium production is so slow it will

take years to make enough

for just one bomb

since plutonium can be produced faster

it is the key to making multiple bombs

the success of the entire project

depends on making plutonium

work but when physicist emilio segre

gets the first tiny sample of plutonium

from hanford

he makes a devastating discovery

a plutonium gun bomb will melt

not explode the gun type plutonium bomb

will not work

it was a disaster there was just enough

uranium for

one gun bomb if you couldn't use

plutonium

there would only be one bomb maybe this

whole 350 million dollars is going to go

for naught because

plutonium won't work oppenheimer

really considered resigning from los

alamos at that point

it's a dead end los alamos scraps the

plutonium gun design and starts over

after years of work they can only count

on

one uranium bomb

it's summer 1944 the allies have invaded

france

but the outcome is still in doubt

nazi scientists are introducing

frightening new weapons

the world's first jet fighter a cruise

missile

and a supersonic rocket they could be

close

to an atomic bomb

we knew they were working on it but we

didn't know how far along they were

the war could be lost if germany got it

first

in los alamos they've got a new approach

a possible way to use plutonium

implosion usually an explosion is

outward

this time they're going to push a ball

of plutonium and compress it

taking a ball of plutonium and using

explosives to compress

it might be impossible but it's their

only hope

that was the greatest problem at los

alamos

how to make plutonium work they

reorganized the laboratory

and there's a crash program for

implosion

[Music]

chemist george kistiakowski from harvard

is brought in to work the problem

[Music]

kistiakowski will spend the rest of 1944

and beyond

experimenting desperately trying to make

implosion work

as complex and daunting as implosion is

kistiakowski and his small team will not

be nearly enough

they turned to the british who sent some

of their scientists to los alamos

groves wanted all of them vetted for

possible

security infractions and the british

said

no no they're okay we'll take care of

them

among the new arrivals is a quiet and

strange refugee from germany

his name is klaus fuchs he was a very

good physicist

he made interesting suggestions very

cooperative

but a sort of sort of an odd guy

and he made me uncomfortable

although no one seems aware of it

besides being brilliant

and odd klaus fuchs is a dedicated

communist

in a few short years his presence at los

alamos will come to haunt

groves and oppenheimer

by early 1945 the war in europe is in

its final months

nazi germany is being squeezed between

americans

british and french on the west and

soviets on the east

in los alamos the design for the uranium

gun bomb is complete

all that's missing is the uranium there

should be enough

for one bomb by summer

as for a plutonium bomb they're still

working on implosion

then in april tragedy

when he heard that his chief was dead

his simple humanity expressed itself in

these words to mrs roosevelt

what can i do to help now

ultimate authority over the bomb falls

to harry truman

my duties and responsibilities are clear

i have assumed them but there is one

enormous responsibility that's not at

all clear

incredibly truman has never even heard

of the bomb he's got this responsibility

that he really didn't know about

because franklin roosevelt didn't tell

him

he had been the vice president for 82

days

he had met once with roosevelt

essentially for a

picture oh by the way here you're in

charge of a project that could end human

civilization

thank you very much in may

germany surrenders the war in europe is

over

hitler and the fear of a nazi atomic

bomb the very things that gave birth to

the whole project

are gone

[Music]

but in the pacific the war against japan

is still raging

the job wasn't done i was the boy of

seven

that spring of 1945 and i remember

vividly

there were still young men being killed

every day

the race may have been inspired by fear

of germany

but japan is now the only enemy and thus

target for the bomb

the very first bomb was called the

gadget

after three years and two billion

dollars this is it

a six-foot sphere filled with batteries

electronics

explosives covered with cables to set it

off and measure what happens

at its center a grapefruit-sized ball of

plutonium

the core if this thing works

the world will never be the same

everything comes down to a test in the

new mexico desert

code named trinity it's july 1945

they've been preparing for months

putting in roads

shelters and bunkers miles of cable

it's the biggest science experiment in

history

if it works they'll set off the world's

first

atomic explosion

no one has any idea what that will be

like

they need to measure record photograph

everything

radiation levels shock waves

temperatures

all unknown all must be documented

[Music]

thousands of miles away in potsdam

germany

president harry truman is negotiating

with stalin

does he have an atomic card in his hand

it all depends on the trinity test

back in new mexico george kistiakowski

has discovered a problem

it looked as if the bomb might be a dud

since they had poured the explosive and

it was hot when it was poured

there was the possibility there would be

bubbles in there

so kistiokowski decided he had to fill

those bubbles with liquid explosive

now kistiakowski must drill holes in the

explosive

and carefully fill each bubble

the outcome of the test depends on his

fix

and there's no way to know if it will

work

there was a test on july 14 a full up

explosive test they went really bad

which then made them worry even a little

bit more

they are out of time all they can do is

press on

and hope they'll hoist the bomb to the

top of a 100-foot steel tower

they pile mattresses under it just in

case

thousands of people years of work are on

the line

the last crucial piece the grapefruit

size plutonium core

a 350 million dollar box is delivered by

carr from los alamos

in potsdam truman waits the test is

scheduled

for tonight

begins to rain we're going to have to

postpone this thing

so there's great nervousness most

everybody

really had a knot in their gut about

all the electronic connections and

there's

a zillion things could go on the weather

looks bad

but groves refuses to give in and gross

becomes

his own weather man here and decides

we're going to have this test

at 5 30. it looks as though it might

clear just enough to get the test

in dawn was just beginning to break

we heard the countdown it's july 16

1945 three years

hundreds of thousands of people the

futures of groves and oppenheimer

their careers involved there's two

billion dollars spent

unproven science a president waiting

a chance to end the worst war in history

will it work

the world will never be the same

no one who was there will ever forget it

couldn't believe that i would see it

when i had my eyes closed

it was the most incredible sight i've

ever seen in my life

so it was a brilliant white yellow to

start with

developed reds and orange and purple

blue

i was just standing there with my mouth

open

engineer jack abbey has brought his

camera

i snapped the shutter wide open

jack abbey's picture is the only

properly exposed color still

photo from that night

[Music]

a new age has begun

the bomb is about to change everything

i have to admit i didn't feel much of

anything except

great joy that it was a success

it was really later that we all began to

think more about it

the thing worked and there was plutonium

flowing from the hanford reactors to los

alamos

groves now knows they can make implosion

bombs as fast as plutonium is produced

in potsdam truman gets the news what to

do about the russians here

should we tell them what's going to

happen after the war

truman tells stalin the u.s has a

powerful new weapon

stalin barely reacts because he already

knows

klaus fuchs has been telling the soviets

all

about the bomb stalin and the people

closest to him

were very well informed about the

progress of manhattan project

and that's partly why at putsdam stalin

kind of just looks at them and doesn't

say much

back in the u.s now that the atomic bomb

is a reality

some scientists are having misgivings

about using it

leo zillard who warned of a nazi bomb

drafts a petition to the president

urging him to consider the moral

consequences

off-hand i'd have to say the scientists

were probably about evenly split

for and against scientists also worry

that using nuclear weapons now

will put the us in danger after the war

by encouraging stalin to pursue the bomb

they thought if they are used they are

likely

to precipitate a nuclear arms race with

the soviets

some scientists urge a demonstration of

the bomb to give the japanese a chance

to surrender

but to the japanese surrender does not

seem to be an option

they send kamikazes suicide pilots

against u.s ships in battle after battle

their soldiers killed themselves rather

than be captured

the u.s is now firebombing their cities

100 000 japanese die in one night

in tokyo alone their war

is hopeless yet they still refuse to

surrender

the next step seems unavoidable invade

japan itself

thousands of americans and perhaps

millions of japanese will likely die

for harry truman the bomb seems by far

the lesser evil i may be faced

with an actual land invasion of japan

so if there's anything that can shorten

the war before that

and prevent it i'm for it

on july 26th the japanese are given an

ultimatum

surrender unconditionally or face

destruction

the japanese were not interested in

unconditional surrender

they wanted their emperor to remain in

power they

wanted to oversee their own war crimes

trials they did not want

u.s occupation of the home islands

the japanese reject the ultimatum

[Music]

now all the pieces fall into alignment

japanese leaders who cannot bring

themselves to stop

a massive science project that has spent

two billion dollars racing to create the

bomb

a president facing a horrific battle who

suddenly sees an alternative

[Music]

what happens next dropping two atomic

bombs on japan

in august 1945 will become one of the

most controversial decisions in american

history

seventy years later remarkably evidence

suggests the president

never actually gave this order

now that it's ready it may be harder to

stop the bomb

than to let it go there is a question

about whether or not

truman ever really authorized the use of

the bomb

and it's my argument that he never did

that there was so much momentum

built up that truman new to the job

decides not to interfere with ongoing

plans

on tinian island in the pacific the

uranium gun bomb

nicknamed little boy is ready

it's never been tested but it's so

simple that they are sure

it will work the bomb is loaded into the

b-29

enola gay a few hours before dawn on

august 6th

the plane takes off

[Music]

it flies 1500 miles through the night

at 8 15 a.m over hiroshima

it drops the bomb

now the bomb controls its own destiny

when it's 1900 feet from the ground

it explodes a fireball a quarter mile

across

reaches 10 000 degrees

anything close to the center is

vaporized

then a shockwave explodes buildings

knocking down

anything in its path

almost everything within one mile is

totally destroyed

only a few concrete structures remain

where something or someone absorb the

heat

a shadow is left behind

[Music]

at least 80 000 people die

other bombings have killed more people

what's new about hiroshima is how easy

it was

one plane one bomb

and still even after this the japanese

will not surrender the shock of the

first bomb

didn't quite do it actually they

couldn't even at first accept that

hiroshima had been bombed

the japanese have their own plan to end

the war

behind the scenes they have been

secretly talking to the soviets

hoping the russians will broker a deal

with the us a

conditional surrender

but two days later the soviet union

declares

war on japan

now the brokered conditional deal the

japanese hoped for

is dead

but there's still no sign of surrender

the level of resistance in the japanese

government

was very very difficult to understand it

was

so great

[Music]

on tinian crews are preparing the next

bomb

nicknamed fat man as president truman

addresses the nation

if they do not now accept our terms they

may expect a reign of ruin from the air

the like of which has never been seen on

this earth

[Music]

on august 9 a b-29 carrying the fat man

bomb

takes off the target is

kokura but kokura

is obscured by clouds so the plane heads

for the backup target

because it happens to be cloudy

thousands of fortunate people

are spared others will die in their

place

the second city hit by an atomic bomb

will not be

kokura but nagasaki

[Music]

nearby in pow camp 17 lester tenney

sees the explosion we saw this

tremendous

cloud rise and it was the most unusual

thing

it seemed to have a pedestal and we had

no idea what it was

[Music]

up to 70 000 people are dead

even now after the soviet invasion and

two bombs japanese leaders still cannot

agree

about surrender the

russians invade them they still do not

surrender the second bomb was dropped

and then the emperor

decided to surrender even then

the japanese army did not want to

nothing speaks well for the japanese

nothing the emperors and

his advisers were callously

uninterested in the lives of their

citizens that were being lost

they just did not care about how their

people were suffering

while the japanese leaders try to make

up their minds

groves is planning more atomic attacks

the orders for the bomb are to keep

using them as

made ready that very important phrase

so the bomb after nagasaki if necessary

and

a bomb after that if necessary and a

bomb after that if necessary

they will drop atomic bombs as fast as

they are built

three or four a month and finally truman

said

enough no more until the president

authorizes

them finally the day after nagasaki

japan agrees to surrender on one

condition

they keep their emperor i have received

this afternoon

the unconditional surrender of japan

truman agrees

though he calls it unconditional

qualification

that was japan's hope was to uh

surrender

conditionally to have some say

in how it would happen in pow camp 17

the prisoners sent some things up

but they don't know what lester tenney

tries

a daring experiment speak to a guard

without bowing now if you saw a japanese

guard

two blocks away you better stop turn to

him and bow

or you're beaten and so i went outside

and saw the japanese guard right out

there

and i just walked up to him in my best

japanese i just said

konnichiwa and i never did stop and

bowed

and he stood at attention and within a

matter of five or six seconds

he bowed to me he bowed to me

that war is over

the war is over period just exactly like

that

[Music]

[Applause]

on september 2nd 1945 japan

signs the surrender documents

war ii is over the war was finally over

we were so relieved

[Music]

it's time to celebrate not only the end

of the war

but the remarkable new bomb that helped

win it

after years of secrecy overnight the

gadget

is big news and all of a sudden it's not

only

out but here it is in the newspaper in

front of me i bought a half a dozen

papers of the different kinds

but it it it was a shock

it's a whole new era the atomic age

with its own genesis story secret cities

massive factories the genius in the

general

are suddenly part of the culture

and the press went wild the atomic age

loomed upon the threshold of history

suddenly the cat is out of the bag

well what did you think of that farm we

dropped on the jabs it was new an

american

invention thousands of able young

scientists were called to the service

los alamos laboratory a secret

laboratory in new mexico

was work work work and more work here it

is

plutonium uranium releasing

unimaginable force the basic power of

the universe

and at the center of all of this robert

oppenheimer father

of the atomic bomb one of the most

famous people in all of america

trump's einstein

the triumph of the bomb winning the war

with science

seems the perfect american success story

good thing it was dropped ended the war

saved american lives end of story

the bomb seems to have brought an answer

for how to end the war

but it has also raised questions

the question right away became when are

the soviets going to get a weapon

when are they going to get the bomb

scientists who warned about hitler

having the bomb now worry about the us

and

soviets getting into a competition to

build more and bigger bombs

a nuclear arms race

little do they know it's already too

late

the race started the minute stalin saw

pictures of hiroshima

suddenly this project that's on paper

comes to reality

and the destructive possibilities

of this bomb were made clear

the soviets felt very vulnerable and

that spurs stolen into action

it's after the hiroshima and nagasaki

bombing

that stalin creates the crash program to

catch up and create the soviet nuclear

weapon

the soviets have an invaluable head

start

thanks to espionage not one

but two scientists at los alamos are

spies

klaus fuchs who was german and another

spy who was an american

a graduate student at harvard named ted

hall

having two independent sources inside

los

alamos is an incredible espionage coup

well imagine when apple was designing

the iphone

and if apple's competitors had

two people in the room with steve jobs

listening to steve jobs work through the

various

difficulties and snacks they don't have

to make the mistakes that steve jobs is

making

that's what made fuchs and hall so

valuable and so extraordinary in the

history of espionage and the

in the history of science

no one in the us has any idea how close

the soviets are to getting the bomb

[Music]

with the war over americans are getting

back to normal

enjoying peace but the atomic bomb

is a question mark hanging over the

future

the manhattan project is still in place

what to do about the bomb how many we

have how many to build

at the secret laboratory in new mexico

the scientists are anxious to go home to

their universities

we had a group of young professors who

had good jobs to go back to an academia

and you had

young students who had not yet completed

their studies

you got to remember living here in

little wooden shacks

with cold stoves eating bad food

on mud streets so as soon as the war

ended

everybody left the town dropped from

three 4 000 people

to like a thousand people in just a

matter of weeks

robert oppenheimer whose vision created

los alamos is one who leaves

the lab he built now seems destined to

fade away

in the summer of 1945 trinity hiroshima

and nagasaki opened the door to the new

age

but it won't be until a year later in

the summer of 1946

that major turning points will determine

the future

of the bomb we are here

to make a choice between the quick and

the dead

it begins in june at the united nations

when the u.s

offers the world a plan to get rid of

the bomb

one manufacturer of atomic bombs

shall stop two

existing bombs shall be disposed of

pursuant

to the times of the treaty

america will give up its atomic bombs if

other countries pledge not to build them

and agree to inspections it's an idea

that will become known

as trust but verify

[Music]

the soviets refuse to pledge anything

unless america gives up the bomb

first the battle to save mankind from

destroying itself

is still deadlocked it is later than we

think debate will continue for months

it's late june 1946 and the nuclear arms

race

will soon explode

time now is measured in seconds five

four

three two one

fire just a few weeks later

a huge fleet of warships is sent to the

bottom of the pacific ocean

by the atomic bomb

today they still lie where they sank

bikini lagoon

here in july 1946 the public

would be invited to witness an atomic

explosion

for the first time the u.s military

would discover how vulnerable it was

to its own bomb and the future of los

alamos laboratory

would be guaranteed all

the result of an event appropriately

named

crossroads

[Music]

crossroads is the brainchild of this man

louis strauss or straws as you like to

be called

a curious figure of a man who had been a

shoe salesman

and had made himself very rich and then

he was an admiral in the navy but he

never sailed the ship

extremely politically ambitious

strauss is worried about the navy how

will the new atomic bomb

affect its future historically what did

we have in the country we had an army

and a navy

what does the bomb mean for each of them

it's the thing to have it's a winning

weapon

everybody wants it but only the

air force has it and in 1946

the air force is still part of the army

people have been arguing that the navy's

obsolete now

air forces will control how wars are

fought and won

the traditional line in the navy during

the cold war it was

remember the soviet union as our

adversary the army is our enemy

louis strauss thinks he has the perfect

answer to the navy's problem

a bomb test to prove navy ships can

survive atomic weapons

operation crossroads

sort of a contest between the navy and

the air force

in which air force bombers will try and

sink navy ships

first casualty in the contest is leslie

groves

the navy not groves will be in charge of

crossroads

they'll do the test in the middle of the

pacific ocean at the tiny island of

bikini

[Music]

the navy evicts the residents and

assembles a target fleet

over 90 captured german japanese and

surplus u.s warships will be bombed

there'll be three explosions abel baker

and charlie

one in the air two underwater

crossroads is a huge operation 100

million dollars

42 000 men 240 ships not counting the

targets

instruments cameras

cameras and more cameras

film miles and miles of it

animals so doctors can study what the

bomb does to living creatures

and reporters from all over the world

it was a show it was a spectacle at last

all was ready for able day tentatively

july 1

1946 the show begins

dave's dream is roaring down the runway

engine

singing for the first test able they'll

drop the bomb from a plane

bomb bay doors are open the plane

approaches

the bomb is dropped

unfolded are a myriad of majestic

startling and awesome effects

a panoply that only the cameras can

record in faithful detail

the bomb the same fat man model dropped

on nagasaki

as a force of 20 000 tons of tnt

[Music]

b-17 drones flown by remote control

are sent into the mushroom cloud to take

measurements

it's the first nuclear explosion to be

witnessed by the public

but the public is 18 miles away

and after all the build-up

of the flash you didn't see ships flying

through the air and the first reaction

was now the atomic bomb

not such a big deal

three weeks later a second test baker

this time the bomb will be underwater

the scientists think it's a terrible

idea

they warned that exploding an atomic

bomb under water

will create a witch's brew of

radioactivity

releasing enough plutonium to poison the

entire armed forces of the u.s

they knew what was going to happen when

you set off an underwater explosion it

was going to make a lot of contamination

but i guess they lost out to admiral

blandy

navy admiral william blandy is the man

in charge of crossroads

and from the start he's got a pr problem

i am not an atomic playboy as one of my

critics labeled me

exploding these bombs to satisfy my

personal whim

many considered it a boondoggle the bomb

will not start a chain reaction in the

water

converting it all to gas and letting all

the ships

on all the oceans drop down to the

bottom there was a tremendous amount of

pressure i think on on the navy

to try and convince the public that this

was worthwhile

bikini atoll and faker day the

underwater explosion of the fifth atomic

bomb

the bomb and instruments are set into

action aboard the los alamos firing ship

nerves are stretched to the breaking

point five radio control circuits will

set

off the blast in this value to push

button warfare

two one fire

an underwater shock wave is clearly

visible

in the first one second two million tons

of sea water

are lifted into the air

as the water rises it creates a column

nearly a half

mile wide

now it starts to fall back

the water falling out of the sky creates

a base surge

like the mist at the bottom of a

waterfall

the surge nearly a thousand feet tall

completely envelops the target ships

no one has ever seen anything like it

the sheer power and magnitude of the

atomic bomb

but so far despite two of these bombs

the results looked pretty good for the

navy

75 ships survived less than 20

sunk the navy felt that they came out of

it with flying colors and blandy said

yes the navy can withstand the atomic

bomb

the navy plans to put sailors on these

ships

and sail them triumphantly back to the

us

but there's a problem at first there

seemed to be little damage

but succeeding days told a different

story

the thousand-foot high wave of water

that drenched the ships was highly

radioactive

the ships are now contaminated

geiger counters rattle wildly the area

is loaded with death dealing gamma

neutron and other lethal rays

and there is no complete protection

against this terrifying invisible killer

at first the navy simply doesn't believe

it

you can't smell radiation you can't feel

it

and these navy guys were just gonna get

back on their ships and survive the bomb

now they have no idea what to do

the ignorance was rampant there was

no real plan for decontamination

they try hosing down the ships with sea

water

trouble is the sea water itself is now

highly radioactive

and when the sailors go back to their

own ships to change clothes

they contaminate those ships too

the man in charge of radiation safety

army dr stafford warren

tries to cancel the operation stafford

warren

doesn't want the sailors back on the

ships but

it's pretty hard to go up against the

entire u.s navy

in desperation stafford warren gets a

fish from the lagoon

and places it against a piece of film

the fish

is so radioactive it exposes the film

all by itself the glow was produced by

the exposure of the film to radiation

[Music]

finally admiral blandy and the navy are

convinced

crossroads is halted it's been called

the world's

first nuclear disaster only nine

ships are ever successfully

decontaminated

most of the rest are towed away and

deliberately sunk

[Music]

the air force will remain the primary

keeper of the bomb for now

but crossroads turns out to be a good

thing for los alamos

i don't think the laboratory would have

stayed in business very long had we not

had a customer but the navy

came in and gave us a job it gave us

some work to do and kept the laboratory

going

through some very uncertain times

[Music]

after july 1946 los alamos lab

will grow building and testing more and

more bombs

over the coming decades

crossroads also becomes part of popular

culture

[Music]

even today the baker shot remains the

most enduring

single image of the power of the bomb

[Music]

just a few weeks after the second

crossroads shot

an unexpected event will give americans

another

much darker look at the bomb and for the

first time

a major public debate about using it

will begin

on august 31st the latest issue of the

new yorker magazine appears

on its cover a whimsical portrait of

central park

on a summer day inside

a very different portrait of another

city

on a summer day the entire issue is one

single article

an essay by john hersey about the

experience of the people in hiroshima

told through the eyes of six survivors

one's a catholic priest one's a talis

widow

a couple of them are doctors kinds of

people that americans can relate to

the special issue sells out in hours

hiroshima by john hersey this astounding

report written for the new yorker

magazine has deeply affected thousands

of americans

radio networks in england canada

australia and the us

preempt regular programming and do live

readings by actors

this chronicle of suffering and

destruction is not presented in defense

of an enemy it is broadcast as a warning

that what happened to the people of

hiroshima

a year ago could next happen anywhere

chapter one a noiseless flash

at exactly 15 minutes past eight in the

morning no one had ever seen the

consequences of a nuclear bomb

and the knowledge of what this meant

doesn't really soak in until afterwards

now in august 46 a year after hiroshima

one essay is giving the world a whole

new perspective

on the bomb it has enormous consequences

it begins to make people rethink their

attitudes towards nuclear weapons

but nuclear weapons are becoming the key

to u.s security

harry truman and his advisors begin to

think atomic weaponry can be the basis

of diplomacy former secretary

of war henry simpson worries that

americans are turning against

nuclear weapons so he writes a response

to the new yorker piece

to justify using the bomb it says there

were two choices

use the bomb or invade japan

and it is a false framework there were

alternatives to both the bomb

and an invasion

would japan have surrendered without our

using the bomb

there's no way of answering it one way

or the other we cannot relive history

if truman had not used the bomb why

didn't he

my son was killed because you didn't use

the bomb

an american airplane the debate

continues to this day all that is

certain

is that life in the atomic age is

turning out to be more complicated than

it seemed

when the bomb first appeared

yes the atom is on its way to brighten

our towns

and to help manufacture our most

dependable and indispensable household

service

the public flocked to atomic exhibits in

search of understanding

the bomb had a certain kind of mystique

both terrifying and awe inspiring and

that was the whole other side of the

atomic age

x-rays and medicine and atomic

power and all these things that are

going to contribute to the good life

the atom has come to town

atomic power

was given by the mighty hand of god

atomic power do you suppose that our

appliances would run as well on atomic

energy

today's bonanza is a metal more precious

than gold or silver there's uranium in

them thar hills

it will protect your health improve your

food

bring you less costly living products

and a greater measure of

leisure and security

paid a big price for their sins when

scorched from the face of earth their

battle could not win

put on no longer just a

laboratory dream is here today working

wandering

atomic someday this machine yours is

going to be operating on atomic power

well i can run it on kerosene

with the ever-increasing use of nuclear

energy more towns may eventually become

atomic cities

one part of the early atomic age is

still going strong

today where do we get the word bikini

the designer of the bikini bathing suit

designed it four days

after the test on the bikini island

because of its

explosive dangerous potential

[Music]

while the country is adjusting to life

in the atomic age

scientists in the original atomic city

are looking to update the device that

started it all

[Music]

every bomb america has is still the

original

implosion design first tested at trinity

and dropped on nagasaki

fat man few realize how crude it

actually is

fat man was a science fair project i

mean this was not a production weapon it

was a handmade

craftsman fit all the pieces together it

takes about a week to build one

two years after crossroads los alamos

has a new design to try

they'll explode three shots on the

pacific island of enewetak

a test code named sandstone

sandstone had three tests x-ray yoke and

zebra

and each one tested a new concept in

weapons

this time the public and press are not

[Music]

invited

sandstone is the end of an era

in january 1947 the bomb is put

under civilian control administered by

the atomic energy commission

aec

they replaced the handmade fat man with

a new model

the first mass-produced nuclear weapon

and they open a new lab to build the

bombs los alamos designs

it's the beginning of america's nuclear

weapons complex

a massive juggernaut that will drive

bomb making and testing for decades

through multiple administrations to the

end of the cold war

the year after sandstone another test

but this one isn't at bikini and ouita

or new mexico

it's in kazakhstan

to the immense surprise of everyone

soviet union tested its first atomic

bomb

and the balance of power was suddenly

and

dramatically shifted

testing the atomic bomb in soviet union

was very important

because this is about balancing

if you have this possibility

you're feeling yourself much safer

psychologically we are now on the same

level with the united states

now the united states cannot dictate to

us

[Music]

if the power of the adam was god's gift

to america

well now he had given it to our enemy

too

it was a very very scary moment for the

united states

how to respond now to the soviet union

having a bomb we need a quantum leap

beyond the soviets we have to stay

way ahead of them

some believe the answer is hydrogen

fusion

the same energy that powers the sun

a hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb could

be far bigger than an atomic bomb

there would be no theoretical limit to

the size

of the bomb you could make

the leading advocate for the hydrogen

bomb is physicist edward teller

teller is kind of egotistical and

rightly so

he's a really smart guy but he was kind

of hard to get along with

an idea man he'd have 10 ideas a day

one idea every month might be good but

he had 10 ideas a day

he was always taken with the idea

of going the next step beyond an atom

bomb to a thermonuclear weapon

and i give him a tremendous amount of

credit for

sticking with this and campaigning

for this but no one knows how to build a

hydrogen bomb

it might even be impossible

we knew how to make atomic bombs we

could fill warehouses with them

but we didn't know how to make hydrogen

bombs why would you stop producing a

sure thing

to work on something you didn't know how

to do

moreover some scientists believe this is

a chance to save the world

by choosing to stop this could be a

turning point

in human history we can pursue the

hydrogen bomb

but we don't have to we can send a

positive message to the international

community we can put pressure on the

soviets not to continue building nuclear

weapons

basically we can set a good example

two months after the soviet atomic bomb

a committee

led by robert oppenheimer unanimously

recommends against

a crash program for a hydrogen bomb

louis strauss and edward teller are

outraged

but the decision is up to president

harry truman

the debate over the hydrogen bomb

involved the united states restraining

itself

without any ability to restrain the

soviets

the soviets had proven that they could

build a bomb

well that's that's a huge risk to take

if you're president of the united states

the soviets seemed determined to expand

they already control

eastern europe in 1948

they cut off west berlin hoping to take

that over as well

to harry truman the answer seems obvious

containment contain the soviet union

don't allow it to expand don't allow it

to grow

or to gain any more influence and if we

do

you know it's just going to creep and

creep and creep until they'll be in our

kitchens

we need to speed up our work with other

countries in strengthening our common

defenses

we are united in detesting communist

slavery

at the end of january 1950 truman

announces the u.s

will build a hydrogen bomb truman

decides to respond

with an even bigger and more destructive

weapon and

this is the start of the arms race this

is the start of the escalation that will

last

for decades

just days after truman approves the

h-bomb

physicist klaus fuchs who worked at los

alamos

is arrested for spying

it suggested that this was sort of a

leaky system

and we had to plug the leaks it was a

shock and this was one of the first

major events

that set in motion the era of

mccarthyism and the red scare

five months later communist north korea

backed by the soviet union

invades south korea which is backed by

the u.s

spearheaded by tanks in two days they

were attacking the capital city itself

the cold war wasn't even cold it was a

hot war from pretty much the beginning

there were proxy wars between the us and

the soviet union that were fought

elsewhere

when the korean war goes badly the u.s

begins preparing to use atomic bombs

and quickly discovers a problem

is a very mountainous country and there

was concern that the bombs would

not have much effect that if we use the

bombs

it might diminish their threat in the

eyes of the soviet union

so they were never used in korea

[Music]

as the korean war drags on the soviets

are doing atomic tests with bombers

[Music]

some atomic scientists have created a

symbol to show how close the world

stands to nuclear catastrophe

the doomsday clock at first

they set it at seven minutes to midnight

now with a nuclear arms race

accelerating it's reset

to three minutes to midnight

three minutes to global disaster

with the threat of soviet bombers

carrying nukes

americans have to adjust to a new

reality

we could be hit at home

in the cold war the front line was the

front lawn

you have to take care of yourself so how

do you do that

you could duck under a desk you could

take shelter in your basement

and survive this

our congress leaves the responsibility

for the personal initiative of each of

us

the government does tests to see what

would happen to typical americans

we begin with the question of shelter

for shelter might save our lives if we

were far enough away from ground zero

they put a family of mannequins dressed

in jc penny clothing

inside a suburban ranch home and they

furnished it they put food in there

canned goods

and they blew them up five

four three two

one

in fact the mannequins are blown into

various states of dismemberment

but civil defense administrators the

lesson they took from this

is that if you took the proper

precautions you could

move through this but only

if you do the right things a house

that's neglected

is the house that may be doomed in the

atomic age

a series of civil defense tests were

made to discover the effects of atomic

heat

on american homes the house on the right

an eyesore old unpainted wood

and look at the paper leaves and trash

in the yard

all the earmarks of untidy housekeeping

the house in the middle in good

condition with a clean

unlittered yard let's see what happens

under atomic heat

the house on the right is the first to

ignite the trash

serves as kindling for the dry weathered

wood the lack of fire safe housekeeping

has

doomed this house to destruction the

house in the middle

cleaned up painted up and fixed up

exposed to the same searing atomic heat

wave did not catch fire

the point was if you clean up your yard

and you don't have

debris and things like that you too can

survive

a nuclear blast it is your choice

the reward may be survival

and it's your responsibility not the

government

the government can't do it for you you

have to take care of yourself and if you

don't

if you're hurt that is your fault

and just cleaning up may not be enough

you may have to do some remodeling

well folks i'm glad you could come down

to see my fallout shelter

just finished painting it last night

this room can be put to other uses as

well

yes you could use this as an extra

bedroom for company

it really was the beginning of a kind of

militarization where everyone

is expected to be prepared thick heavy

walls and ceiling protect against

radiation

the thicker the better it is

preparedness

culture well this finishes

my fallout shelter so what is civil

defense about

really it's a domestic theater

uh for purposes of diplomacy

civil defense supported that idea that

nuclear weapons

should be the basis of american foreign

policy and in that sense it was useful

we'll learn how to save lives so well it

won't be worth your while to drop any

bombs on us

if our adversary thinks that the society

can survive it means that our threat

to use nuclear weapons is more credible

[Music]

even as the government is trying to

convince the public that nuclear war is

survivable

in the pacific scientists are ready to

test the first

prototype of what edward teller calls

the super

a hydrogen bomb the test

is secret but documented in a now

declassified

government film if everything goes

according to plan

we'll soon see the largest explosion

ever set off at the face of the earth

the device is more science project than

weapon not so much a bomb

as a building the liquid hydrogen fuel

must be chilled to 400 degrees below

zero so part of the bomb is a

refrigeration plant

the whole thing weighs over 70 tons

all to see if the thermonuclear concept

will work this is the first full-scale

test of a hydrogen device

if the reaction goes we're in the

thermonuclear era

it is now 30 seconds to zero time

pull on goggles or turn away do not

remove goggles or

face bursts until 10 seconds after the

first light

[Music]

three

it explodes with a force of 10 million

tons of tmt

600 times more powerful than the bomb

that destroyed hiroshima

just nine months later

the soviets explode their first hydrogen

bomb

it's less powerful than america's h-bomb

but it's small enough

to be carried by a plane

[Music]

the soviet union has solidified control

in eastern europe

acquired the atomic bomb supported a war

in korea

and now has a deliverable hydrogen bomb

the u.s is in the midst of a red scare a

quest to root out anyone who can be

blamed for communist success

in this climate of fear and

recrimination robert

oppenheimer is about to become a target

the victim

of lewis strauss he is

a horrible horrible person really one of

the evil men in this story

he's already looking for a way to attack

oppenheimer and humiliate him

strauss has never forgiven oppenheimer

for opposing a crash program

to develop a hydrogen bomb when

president eisenhower makes strauss

chairman of the atomic energy commission

he sees his chance for revenge

the first thing he did when he took

office was to begin a process

that would lead to having oppenheimer's

security clearance lifted

the aec has a hearing strauss picks the

judges

and the prosecutor he gives them secret

files in oppenheimer dating back to the

30s

and he enlists the fbi

the fbi is tapping oppenheimer's

phone and his attorney's phone and

feeding this information

to the prosecutor

it is totally a kangaroo accord

[Music]

they went back over his life step by

step mistake by

mistake people come to his defense

people attack him

the women in his life all of this

communist past

and oppenheimer got smaller and smaller

and smaller

sitting in this hard chair in the middle

of the security hearing

the moment of truth comes when edward

teller is asked

do you believe oppenheimer is a security

risk

and tell her very cleverly never said

yes i do

what he said was i would feel more

secure

if oppenheimer were no longer asked to

advise the government

and with that he drove in the final nail

the father of the atomic bomb is

stripped of his clearance

kicked out of government forever

you know it was witch hunt time i

thought that was disgusting

frankly it achieved exactly what his

enemies

wanted to achieve it destroyed him

it killed him spiritually

but teller pays a price

the hatred to edward was so thick you

could cut it with a

knife the people who dealt

most closely with edward i think at los

alamos at least disliked him

for the rest of his life

[Music]

even as the aec is going after

oppenheimer

in the pacific another test

america's first practical h-bomb

if it works a deliverable thermonuclear

weapon

on march 1 1954 it becomes apparent that

the bomb

does indeed work only too well

because of design errors it's twice as

powerful as predicted

15 megatons equal to 15

million tons of tnt approximately 1 000

times as powerful as little boy

this is a massive massive weapon

the mushroom cloud rises over 15 miles

spreading radioactivity through the

atmosphere

fallout contaminates inhabited islands

and a japanese fishing boat

ironically named lucky dragon

one of the japanese fishermen dies

over 200 islanders get sick

the test was secret but the fallout

makes it an international

incident

it brought worldwide attention to the

fact of atmospheric testing

should we be testing in the atmosphere

when all that happens is this

radiation's going to get in the wind

currents and expose

everybody to radiation the incredible

power of the h-bomb

reveals the futility of civil defense

the concern before the hydrogen bomb

was could we take shelter what the

hydrogen bomb tests reveal

is that that is inadequate there may be

no safety

except run it's estimated over 4 million

would have died in new york city

[Music]

if surviving a soviet h-bomb is

impossible

the only option is to deter them from

attacking in the first place

to do that president eisenhower creates

a new policy

any soviet aggression will be met with

massive nuclear retaliation delivered by

the strategic air command

sack the air force maintains part of its

bomber fleet

airborne at all times prepare to proceed

to specific targets

sac is led by curtis lemay lemay

realizes that the bomb has forever

changed war

he saw very early that wars would last

for days or even hours

and everything had to happen right up

front

the may plans a massive first strike on

the soviet union

what he calls a sunday punch

ready to go at a moment's notice his

crews drill

constantly

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

b-47s and b-52s taking off from bases

throughout the free world

all of a sudden you've got 90 airplanes

departing this airport

nuclear weapons on board you take off

you don't know whether it's really a

mission or not

everything is so classified you won't

get those code instructions until you're

airborne

and you know that at eight or ten other

bases the same damn thing is happening

if these flow of airplanes are in the

air they will be coming towards the

soviet union

and unless the soviet union backs down

sharply

it's not going to be around when this

red phone is picked up

direct lines to sac bases on four

continents

are seized massive retaliation means u.s

defense is increasingly dominated by the

air force

the air force controlled 47 percent of

the national defense budget

at which point the navy and the army

began thinking

wow we better get some atomic bombs too

as the military services compete

america's nuclear stockpile grows and

diversifies

los alamos was happy to make it and the

military was happy to pay for it

and so every time they asked for

something the lab responded sure

no problem nuclear weapons were viewed

as just

regular weapons only bigger how many

different kinds

can we fabricate big bombs little bombs

big warheads little warheads a nuclear

cannon for ground

troops even a one-man

backpack nuke a way to stop thousands of

soviet tanks from invading

germany one nuclear round will be

detonated here

26 minutes prior to the attack blocking

avenues of approach by barriers of

flooding and cratering and landsliding

attacking

autobahns or highways or railroads or

bridges

atomic demolition munitions

[Music]

eventually the drive to make a nuclear

version of anything and everything

gets a little out of hand there was a

nuclear bazooka

which i think probably is a contender

for being the most ridiculous

it detonated perfectly releasing its

lethal radiation

some of the physicists said we could

actually develop a nuclear

hand grenade the only problem was

finding somebody dumb enough to throw it

so the american stockpile blossoms

by 1947 we had a stockpile of 13.

by 1953 we had over 1100.

by the late 60s we had over

31 000 nuclear weapons

and 36 different types

i kind of wonder exactly did you really

need all this

but i think a lot of it was the military

thought they did

and a lot i think is just political you

know we have more

than you you know

[Music]

the ultimate example of we have more

than you

comes in october 1961 when the soviets

detonate

the largest bomb in human history

50 megatons 50

million tons of tnt

when the pilot landed so the plane was

highly warped

skin buckled and the pilot never flew

again

he said he had done his job for the

motherland and he retired after the drop

but it's good for nothing except

symbolism

a bomb this big is not really of any

utility

you don't kill a lot more people with a

gigantic bomb like that than you can

with a couple little bombs

you've had two super powers and you had

to suppress

the other superpower from making a first

strike and the only way you could do

that

was to be so strong that if they did

strike you first

they would be wiped out mutual assured

destruction mad and looking back i think

it was

on the other hand by both sides being so

strong

that they knew they could destroy each

other

[Music]

it kept the peace

until it almost didn't

in october 1962 soviet leader nikita

khrushchev sees a chance to make a bold

stroke

in america's backyard

pushup decides to put missiles in cuba

in order to change the balance of power

even today new details about

khrushchev's power play

are still coming to light we still don't

know

the full story but it was not just the

missiles

the soviets were planning to create a

massive

military base in cuba the most

powerful soviet military base in the

world

he was thinking of a remapping of the

cold war relationship

dramatic unprecedented but to make it

work

khrushchev had to do it secretly

because if the united states knew that

missiles were going to cuba

we would stop them it almost

works but before the soviets can

complete the installation

a u.s spy plane discovers the plan

the showdown begins with a speech

it was about nine o'clock in the evening

that they announced the speech of the

president to the nation

good evening my fellow citizens this

government

has maintained the closest surveillance

of the soviet military buildup on the

island of cuba

and my father told me i think they

discovered missiles

a series of offensive missile sites

is now in preparation on that imprisoned

island

the soviets were very worried they were

kind of expecting kennedy to announce

not just a blockade but maybe an

invasion of cuba

and then it will be strong possibility

of the real nuclear war

and it will be end of the world

shall be the policy of this nation to

regard any nuclear missile

launched from cuba against any nation in

the western hemisphere

as an attack by the soviet union on the

united states

requiring a full retaliatory response

upon the soviet union

full retaliatory response on the soviet

union and i knew exactly what a four-way

television response meant

and what the consequences of that would

be

we would consider bombing you with

atomic weapons

to see the president of the united

states go on national television tell

the world

that could happen that got people's

attention

at united nations headquarters in new

york the cuban crisis is the one and

only subject of discussion

the issue which confronts the security

council

is grey as kennedy considers

invading cuba he calls former president

and general dwight eisenhower for advice

general what's your judgment as to the

chances they'll fire these things off if

we invade cuba

i'd want to keep my own people very

alert yeah

no hang on tight

kennedy has no idea that tactical

nuclear weapons

are already in cuba they were thinking

well if the americans

land in cuba then we will have to use

at least tactical nuclear weapons to

repel them

and maybe even mid-range weapons missile

officers in cuba had authorization

from the soviet union to launch those

missiles

rather than allow them to be destroyed

now imagine if marines had landed on the

beaches of cuba

and had been met by a volley of tactical

nuclear weapons

very scary days i truly thought we were

going to war

really every time i went into that

office during the day i thought it was

going to be my last day on earth

[Music]

in the end kennedy and khrushchev both

stare into the nuclear abyss

and step back two leaders

took control of this crisis

they decided no we will not start the

war

we will try to resolve this

diplomatically there is a great story of

nuclear learning here

when they realized what the consequences

could be

rocho really changed his position in a

radical way

very quickly khrushchev withdraws the

missiles

in return kennedy secretly agrees to

remove u.s

missiles along the soviet border

given missile crisis was a much closer

call

than i think people to this day really

realize

both sides were behaving really

recklessly

really recklessly but once they

saw what the real danger looked like

then both of them made concessions and

became

very reasonable and you can even say

that the cuban missile crisis began the

process of arms control

as president of the united states i now

have signed the instruments of

ratification

of this treaty nine months after the

missile crisis

the u.s soviets and britain agree on the

first

test ban treaty which bans nuclear tests

in the atmosphere

in space and underwater and within a

year

the first direct hotline is established

between washington

and moscow

before the missile crisis opposition to

the bomb had been building

often spearheaded by women

don't give irradiated milk to my

children

you know you have a bomb test the winds

blow radiation to the fields where the

cows

eat the grass and then you get the milk

and we serve it to our children no

we're not going to do this anymore so

many mothers

marched against atmospheric nuclear

testing that the united states

government finally said all right

we'll put the tests underground

[Music]

underground tests also explore the

potential to use the bomb for

landscaping

on a gigantic scale possibly

excavating road cuts harbors canals

the testing that began in 1945 and

continued through 1962

included over 200 nuclear explosions

once it moved underground there were 800

more

before all u.s testing stopped in 1992

but moving testing underground was only

the first step

books and films began to explore what

nuclear war and its aftermath would mean

grim dramas like on the beach fail safe

the dark satire of dr strangelove

no nukes a groundbreaking concert film

and rally the day after a television

movie that draws

100 million viewers and becomes a major

cultural event

and war games which cautions that a

nuclear war

the only winning move is not to play

slowly but surely the public is leading

the leaders

what began in 1963 with the first test

ban treaty

leads to other agreements attempts to

slow down

the build-up of nuclear weapons

by 1986 ronald reagan is president

george schultz his secretary of state

in october reagan meets soviet leader

mikhail gorbachev

in reykjavik iceland and something

remarkable happens

reagan's on one end of the table and i'm

sitting next to him

garbage shops on the other end of the

table chevrons sitting next to him

and we talked about eliminating nuclear

weapons

he and gorbachev in a totally unscripted

totally improvisational way moved closer

to a superpower agreement to

denuclearize the world

than ever happened before or has

happened

since such a dramatic moment where two

presidents of these

superpower enemies suddenly

find this common platform common

wish

but the common wish to get rid of the

bomb ultimately proves

impossible the sticking point

is a new u.s technology called star wars

promoted by edward teller

it was a technology the soviets did not

have and

it was a technology that they felt could

be used

to make it impossible for the soviets to

have a nuclear deterrent

and garbacho was not able to accept that

the cold war is thawing

three years after reykjavik the berlin

wall comes down

in 1991 mikhail gorbachev

dissolves the soviet union all without

the bomb being used

we got out of it with the skin of our

teeth we had a couple of close calls

along the way

and i i think you know we were lucky

these two countries were able to end

the most dangerous the most protracted

confrontation in history

at the height of the nuclear arms race

the u.s and soviet union together

had over 60 thousand nuclear weapons

it's absolutely insane and

when we get enough distance from this

people will look

back on it as a moment of

humanity's most extraordinary insanity

it was an overkill by 5 000 on both

sides

it was stupid it was wasteful it would

have been the ultimate catastrophe

and yet it worked

the bomb is what keeps this whole cycle

a cold war not a hot war without the

bomb

at some point we would have been

fighting each other

the legacy of the bomb was that it

really changed

the nature of global politics it was

just

a whole new ball game the bomb

bring the understanding to the

politicians

that now you cannot win the war

because if you will start the war

you will lose more that you will gain

today besides the us and russia six

other nations

also have the bomb plus south africa

which had it and got rid of it

and israel which will not confirm or

deny having it

we don't have control over them or what

they might do with it

the scariest one is india and pakistan

some experts believe even a limited

nuclear war between

india and pakistan would be catastrophic

for all of us

[Music]

there would be so much smoke and smog

from the cities burning

that there would be a sort of nuclear

winter around the whole world

dropping average temperatures just

enough to cause

crop failures worldwide

and about 2 billion human beings would

starve to death

people do not understand the danger

they don't understand the likelihood

that's going to happen is really

high and they don't understand their

magnitude

over 70 years ago a few scribbles on a

blackboard

opened the door to a new reality

fateful decisions set the world on a

path to nuclear weapons

i don't feel any guilt or blame about it

i think my view really is if we hadn't

done it somebody else would have

and it would be with us in any case

there is no going back the knowledge

of how to destroy ourselves is here to

stay

it appears that our task is learning how

to live with it

i think what should give us hope is that

in all the decades since 1945

not one nuclear weapon has been exploded

in anger

anywhere in the world we've managed

somehow to keep our thumb

off the button and let's hope we

continue

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