-bomb myths
exploded

has been published this year.

Professor Blackett is uniquely
, Qualified to write such a book for
the following reasons. He is not
only one of our leading physicists
but from 1945 til] its abolition in 19-
48 he was a member of the British
government’s Advisory Committee
on Atomic Energy, but in disa-
greement with the opinions of
most of its members.

He has the additional advan-
tage that he started life as a pro-
fessional naval officer, and left
the navy in 1919 to study physics
under Rutherford. He was also,
of course, on war work from 1939
to 1945,

Finally, he was one of the few
British scientists who figured in
Hitler’s list for immediate arrest
had the Nazi invasion in 1940 suc-
ceeded.

The first chapters of the book
deal with “strategic bombing” in
the recent war, and the effect of
atom bombs.

The British and American air
forces dropped 1,350,000 tons of
bombs on Germany. They had kill-
el 300,000 to 500,000 people. But
they did not stop German indus-
try. For example, the Germans
made 12,100 tanks in 1943 and 19,-
000 in 1944,

Even in the last three months
of the .war German industry,
though declining, was producing
armaments at a greater rate thar.
in 1942,

Now a plutonium bomb releases
as much energy.as would a single,
lump of 20,000 tons of TNT. But
this would be a very inefficient
way of using TNT, as it would
do far more destruction than is
needed at the center of the area
destroyed. Two thousand tons of

many lives and buildings as were
destroyed by one atom bomb.
That means that 670 atom
bomhs on Germany, would not have
won the war. Allowing for certain
’ “improvements”, Blackett puts
the equivalent figure at 400. Of
course, a much smaller number
Would have done so had they all
been dropped in the right places.
But this cannot be done in the
' face of opposition.
e ‘
The Soviet Union and the U.S.
are? both vastly less vulnerable
than Germany because their in-
dustry is more scattered and it
is much more practicable to evac-
uate their cities; airplanes seek-
ing to bomb Moscow or Chicago,
Kuznetzk or St. Louis, would have
to cross hundreds of miles of ter-
‘vitory from which fighters could
rise to attack them, and above all,
Tadar could detect them.
For this reason the atom bomb
- ould not be a decisive weapon
Against either of these great
_ Powers. Unfortunately, it could be
 ®gainst Britain, where the poPu-
_ lation is much denser and the op-
portunities for interception much
ess. '
Now the Soviet government
has never carried out mass de-
Struction of enemy civilians. For
_ €xample, in the first Finnish war,
the Finns say that they lost 646
Civilians from air bombing.
Ne reason is, of course, that

ordinary bombs will destroy as .

By J.B.S. HALDANE

CAN best begin a review of Professor P. M. S, Blackeit’s book,
“Miltary and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy,’
stating that I regard it as the most important book on any subject which

> by

the Soviet government does not
want to make the masses of ene-
my countries hate it.

‘Further, a surprise attack on
America with atom bombs could
only win a war were it followed
by an invasion across,an ocean,
for which the means are not avail-
able. If not so followed up it would
unite America against the Soviets
as nothing else could.

The placing of bombs by agents
(and seeing that they appear to
weigh over four tons’ they cannot
be carried in one’s pocket) would
have the same effect. Blackett
therefore regards such an attack
as extremely unlikely.

Plenty of American writers
have talked about wiping out the
USSR in a week. Their experts
know better. That is why they
are trying to organize the unfor-
tunate nations of Western FeunePe
as their allies.

_ The fate’ of these allies is vivid-
ly depicted in the U.S. Navy’s
memorandum on bases for launch-

“ ing rockets.

“These bases may themselves
be vulnerable to atom bomb at-
tack, but so long as they are

Guns,
By Max Gordon

E overpowering impression

“you get from conversations

with Communist leaders, both in
eastern and western Europe, is

‘that the result in the struggle
“petween the world socialist forces

and imperialism has already been
determined.

Wall Street can still connive and
intrigue, perhaps even start an-
other war out of desperation—
though | this is not inevitable—
put it cannot win.

‘Not the least factor in sasitield
buting to this feeling were the
events in China.

It is not hard to understand
why you get this feeling in east-
ern Europe. The only city I
visited there was Prague, but it
was clear that in this most
recently established popular de-
mocracy, the revolution is irre-

versible\ and socialism well on-

its way. It is even further con-
solidated in the other eastern
European lands.

Whatever opposition still exists
in Czechoslovakia is scattered,
unorganized, and confined to the.
middle and upper classes. The
working class and a“ bulk of

peasantry, as well as a con-
cei section of the intellec-
tuals are solidly behind the revo-
lution.

In western Europe, Loxantuhint
leaders expect sharp economic
struggles in the near future as
the Marshall Plan continues to

demoralize their economies and

to compel lower living standards
for the workers, which are near
starvation level today.

The economic effects of the

there, they are not likely to be
' by-passed. In this respect the ad-

vanced base may be likened on

a chess board; meagre though
their power may be individually,

So long as they exist and the

king stays severely behind them,
he is safe.”

Whoever wins a game of chess,
there are seldom many pawns at
the end. Do you want Britain to
be a pawn, Mr. Attlee?

Blackett’s solution is as fol-
lows. “If Great Britain adopted a
policy of armed neutrality and was
prepared to oppose by force the
attempts of either major contest-
ant to occupy the country and use
it as a*base against the other, it
is very probable that she would
be successful,”

Unfortunately there is already
an American base in England. ‘°
e ;
Much of the book is concerned
with the Baruch plan and other

efforts for “international” control
of atomic energy. The author
holds that the Soviets need atomic
energy for their industrial devel-
opment, though curiously enough,
the nation in the long run that
haS most to gain from atomic
energy is India.

Under the Baruch plan an inter-
national authority would have
ownership or managerial] control
of “all atomic energy activities
potentially dangerous to world
security” —-in other words a
stranglehold over the economic
development of all nations.

Given that owners of coal and
water power in the U.S. are op-
posed to the development of atom-
ic power even in their own country,
the Sovjet Union may well doubt
whether an international author-
ity on which the representatives
of capitalist states would certainly
form the majority would allow
atomic power to be used to build
socialism.

I hope that.in a future edition,
of which/ there will certainly be
many, the author will give his
views on the Spaak compromise
plan, which the Soviet Union has
now accepted in principle.

I have no space to quote the
extremely interesting sections on
radioactive poisons and _ bacter-
iological weapons, nor the chap-
ter in which it is pointed out that

, the bombs were dropped on Japan

when they were not so much to
save American lives as to force
Japan to capitulate before the
Red Army reached Peking.

The book ends on a note of
hope: “On balance, therefore, the
military and moral arguments
against the initiation of a preven-
tative war by America in the
near future are very strong.” Still
less does Professor Blackett be-
lieve that the Soviet Union =
start a war.

He thinks that the period of
greatest danger may come in four
years or so, when the American
staffs hope that, as a result of the
Marshall plan, the Western Euro-

not butter, for

Marshill Plan are thus blocking
consolidation of imperialist power
in the west European nations,
and beginning to undermine the
position of the Social Democrats,
leading agents of the imperialists,
among the workers. :

Of the six nations I visited—

France, Britain, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark and Czechoslovakia —

-only in the last are the condi-

tions of the working class and
peasantry better than they were
before the war.

The Czech worker today lives
better than the Belgian, French,
or Danish worker, which is a
‘reversal of the pre-war situation,
though there is still much he can-
not get. j

A shortage of industrial goods

exists, partly due to the fact
that the Czechs had to export

' hugely to buy food from the out-

side to make up for a disastrous
drouth in 1947. But where the
Czech worker cannot buy enough
‘goods because they are not avail-
able, the Dutch or Danish or
French worker cannot buy them
because he must spend every

, available penny to ee his fam-

ily alive.

The low food prices, plus the
fact that rents range from about
$8 to $12 a month, give the Czech

worker spare cash which he

wants to spend for better living

but which he cannot yet achieve._

But he is far better off for food
than the other workers mention-
ed, and even more important,

his position is constantly improv-

ing while the west - European
workers are suffering continual
deterioration in their standards.

The ew five-year plan, plus
the joint planning of Czech econ-
omy and those of othef east

i

European lands will greatly

strengthen them all. :

eo 4 v
These, I would say, are the

political and economic effects of
the Marshall Plan. on the coun-
tries I visited: —

@ Rapidly expanding military
budgets, demanded by the U.S. as
part of its world military plan,
are causing runaway inflation and
are forcing further cuts in con-
sumption by the are aey:
erished peoples. _

@ Shifts to armament making
have compelled cuts in produc-
tion of industrial goods for re-
habilitation and for export, there-
by forcing increased.exports or
reduced imports in needed food
and consumer goods.

@ Food and fuel subsidies are
being eliminated and price ceil-
ings either jacked up or ended
altogether, while wage ceilings
remain static. All this is a part
of the plan to cut national con-
sumption so as to provide for
armament and to “stabilize” fi-
mances,

@ In some countries, consumer
goods from the U.S. are flooding

a domestic market which has _

been supplied by native industry,

causing a shut-down of the na-

tive industry and large-scale un-
employment.

@ The U‘S. has forced western
Europe to forego reparations in
the form of basic machinery
from Germany and refuses to
send such machinery to these
countries from the U.S., thereby
keeping production low.

@ Trade with eastern Europe
is limited by the terms of the
Marshall Plan, which prohibits
as export to these countries all
products labelled war potential,
This compels the west European
nations to depend on the US.

pean powers will be _ strong
enough to act at least as pawns.
That does not mean that we are
in danger now, but it means that
we may have time to build up a
peace movement SEPONE, enough
to save us.

Blackett is not a Communist,
but a Fabian; his book is written
with a severe objectivity which
some readers wil] find provoking,
but which will, in the long run,
increase its influence.

Had he been a Communist he
would have added certain points.

For example, he would have
stated that Churchill did not keep
his promise, made on the radio
when the Soviet Union was in-
vaded, to inform the USSR of
technical war developments, and
that this is doubtless a further
reason for the Soviet rejection of
the Baruch plan.

A Communist writer would have
laid more stress on the economic
motives behind the drive for war
in America, and less on its psy-
chological motivation. He would
probably differ from Blackett in
several other details.

Nevertheless, the book will be
of immense value to all powers of
peace, and to all patriots in West-
ern Europe who do not wish their _
countries to be devastated. —

It contains facts amply suffi-

cient to meet the arguments of _

the pro-American faction in this
country. Even if Blackett is out
by a factor of two or three in his
estimate of the efficiency of atom-
ic weapons (and I think this un- :
likely) his main thesis is un-
affected. :

Everyone who is taking an dc-
tive part in the struggle for peace ©
will need a copy of this book. And
they should also see that their
public library contains one. Its
translation into French, Dutch,
and Italian is a matter of urgency.

And I hope that it may soon be
made available in the Penguin or
Some other cheap series. For it
is up to us to make it a major
weapon in the peace campaign.

urope

for trade, meaning they can ex-

port chiefly raw materials and ae

food instead of industrial goods
and must import American pro-
ducts at high prices. fly Tt eee
turning them into colonial hin- _
terlands of the U.S.

Added to this, there is increas-
ing bitterness, even on the part
of the business elements, as they
see western Germany being re-
constructed rapidly with the aid :
of American machine imports —
while their economies flounder
through lack of modern | stat
inery.

The Marshall Planner will
shout “Communist propaganda” at
these charges. But they are be-
ing confirmed daily by such
rabid backers of the plan as the
strident, arch-hypocritical New

York Times in a series of cau-

tiously-worded technical articles

repeating virtually bc SS, ¢

made: here.

playing around with giving up
the “recovery” myth and coming —
straight out with a Sree instead
of butter”

Thus do the ‘Mat ‘Planners

_ admit to the first charge |

here. Every other one can
documented in the same way!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 1%, a one