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Tuesday, October 29, 1974
University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
A-bomb forms global fuses
Rv GLENN MEYER
By GLENN MEYER I am become death—the shatterer of worlds.
"hhhagaaVua Gau"
One was scathed in the box.
He was 10 long and weak,
wet about 9,000 pounds. The other was, called "Fat Man."
Thousands of people had worked to build them, and they had cost the U.S. government about $2 billion.
At 8:15 a.m. Aug. 6, 1945,
"Little Boy" fell on Hiroshima,
Japan, and about 78,000 people
died. Three days later "Fat
German Girl" Sasaki, and
about 35,000 people died. World
War II was over.
"Aw-struck, I watched a pillar of purple fire shoot upward, becoming ever more alive as it climbed skyward through the white clouds. It was no longer smoke, or dust, or even a cloud under the sun." New species of being, born right before our incredulious eyes.
William L. Laurence, working for the New York Times, was the only reporter covering the story of the bomb. In a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, he recounted what he saw when "Fat Man" exploded:
The pillar was a giant mountain of jumbled rainbows in travail. I knew that much living substance had gone into the water. In the middle of the pillar was protruding to a great height through the white
It's been about two months since KU students went through their latest enrollment ordeal at Allen Field House. Enrollment for the spring semester is almost three months away.
Many schools across the country have successfully adopted early enrollment, or preenrollment as it sometimes is called. One of the most workable alternatives to KU's current enrollment system would be a combination of the optical-scanning and terminal methods.
The unpleasanties of long lines in a muggy Hoch Auditorium, waiting for an adviser at the departmental office, besieged and cranky enrollment workers and the smells of thousands of perspiring bodies while you wait a half hour at the mathematics and business class card tables are too far in the past to be clearly remembered and too far in the future to worry about.
But now is the time to remember that class you were closed out of and those interminable lines. It's important that you remember because the University administration may soon decide whether to implement a system of early enrollment.
There are many advantages to this system for students in schools and departments and administration.
Early enrollment is workable
Such an operation is fairly simple. The timetable of classes would be distributed about the middle of each semester. After each student had been advised, he would fill out a schedule card that could be ready by computer. The computer then could immediately accept or reject the schedule on the basis of the availability of a place in the class and time conflicts in the schedule. The student could make appropriate changes in his schedule if it were rejected and pay his fees. The enrollment process would then be completed.
A major advantage for both students and faculty would be that the bookstore finally might be able to stock the correct number of books for a course. A major advantage is that the course for each course would be known earlier, and
Some inequities of the present system would also be eliminated. No longer could one student pull class cards for several other students who weren't scheduled to enroll until a later time.
If enough computer terminal locations were provided, students would no longer wait in long lines at each step in the process. The student immediately would know whether his first choice of classes was available, and could give careful consideration to schedule changes. The student would be guaranteed a place in the classes. This is in contrast to the spur of the moment changes that now must be made at the field house and are sometimes regretted later.
Early enrollment also might be tied to some improvement in the advising system. Some changes are certainly needed in advising in the freshman-sophomore and Sciences at the freshman-sophomore level.
The faculty would no longer be required to advise and enroll a large number of students in the week before classes begin. This time could be followed byably in course planning and reviewing lectures.
Students would know their class schedule early. They could make decisions on employment and extracurricular activities well in advance of the beginning of the semester.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who headed the team of scientists who batted the bomb, died on Thursday. He would never be the same again."
The atomic age was born in the midst of World War II. The United States was in a race with Germany to build the bomb. Most scientists and government officials who knew of the project thought that whoever built the bomb was the winner. In the United States, it was called the "Manhattan Project."
clouds, giving the appearance of a monstrous prehistoric creature with a ruff around its neck, a fleecy ruff extending in all directions, as far as the eye could see."
The schools and departments would be better able to plan for the number of students in their courses. The number of sections of a course offered could be directed by student interest.
General Leslie Groves synchronized all phases of the project. Uranium and plutonium for the bomb were produced at Oak Ridge, Tenn. and near Hanford, Wash. Groves chose Oppenheimer to design and construct the bomb and chose Los Alamos, N.M., as the site for the scientific laboratories. The bomb would be tested 200 miles south of Los
faculty members could submit more accurate book orders earlier.
The administration would benefit because the time and paperwork in the enrollment process would be reduced. Planning and management required that the earlier availability of enrollment figures.
For 10 years, that is exactly what happened, but in May of this year, India set off its first atomic bomb. In July, Pew Research magazine reported that Iran had launched a nuclear weapons and that Iran and Egypt were trying to get some.
There also may be some disadvantages to an early enrollment system. The early enrollment program that began several years ago at Kansas State University has been widely criticized. Much of this criticism centers on the greatest deficiency of the K-State plan: Students can't choose the day and time of their courses or their instructors.
The cost of installing computer terminals in several locations on campus would be significant. This factor must be balanced against the expenditures of the current system, such as setting up the field house for enrollment and hiring a large number of temporary workers.
The schools and departments would be forced to make course offerings before they knew what their budgets for the next semester would be. This would be a particular problem in the lag between the spring semester of one academic year and the fall semester of the next.
knew the monopoly was only temporary, and estimated that the Soviet Union would have an atom bomb in 10 to 20 years. There was consternation when the Russians exploded their nuclear device in 1948. Truman intended to go ahead for the "super," the hydrogen bomb. The race was on.
The Student Senate Academic Affairs Committee has endorsed an early enrollment plan. The University administration should move promptly to decide whether such a system is desirable so that it could be implemented during the next academic year.
The first attempt to limit the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear testing occurred while
KU, however, has a larger number of courses with more sections. An early enrollment system here might be structured to allow a choice of section and instructor.
—Richard Paxson Contributing Writer
In a few years, both countries had tested hydrogen bombs, and Britain and France had joined the "atomic club." Communist China joined the club in 1984. Having the "yellow house" in control of the bomb industry, it was there was some hope that the five-nation club could somehow remain exclusive.
Oppenheimer and the collaborating scientists who built the bomb knew that "the world would never be the same again."
Alamos, at a place called "Trinity," near Alamogordo, N.M.
up to the time the bomb was exploded, at 5:30 a.m. July 16, 1945, no one was sure what would happen. Some scientists believed that the bomb would be a dud. Others, including Enrico Fermi (who headed the completion and operation of the first atomic pile), were worried that the test would ignite the atmosphere.
According to Laurence, Fermi said, "I invite bits, first, against the destruction of all human life, and second, just that of human life in New Mexico."
The explosion lit up the sky, and doused dows 180 miles away, and caused a great deal of ex- tension and down the Pacific Coast.
By the time the bomb was tested, Germany had surrendered and Japan was on the way to defeat. U.S. strategists thought that an allied victory would require an invasion of Japan itself. They estimated that invading the home islands of Japan would cost one million dollars in surprise atomic attack might bring the war to an end and save hundreds of thousands of lives.
The decision to drop the bomb lay with President Harry Truman. Some scientists blazed a blaststream of the bomb's power should be tried first. Others argued that the United States had few bombs, and that only a few were deployed to force the Japanese warlords to surrender. The second argument won, and "Little Boy" was loaded onto a B-29, and it was to be dropped on Hiroshima.
For the next four years the United States had a monopoly on atomic weapons. Officials
the United States was in sole possession of the bomb. In 1946 Bernard Baruch, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, presented to the United Nations a plan in which the United States would give knowledge of the atomic bomb if the Soviets would agree to certain limits on the development of nuclear devices. The Soviets turned down the Baruch who probably because they were positioned in a crush program to build their own bomb.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations organization, was set up in 1968 to use the use of nuclear power throughout the world. It also acted as a regulatory agency to try to assure that the nations using nuclear power plants would not try to use them to develop weapons. In 1961, the United Nations General Assembly created the Eighteenth Nation Disarmament Committee.
The first concrete step taken toward limitation of nuclear testing was the conclusion, in 1963, of the Treaty Banning Nuclear Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Underwater. However, France and China refused to sign the treaty, and the United States stepped up its underground tests until their acceptance of atmospheric tests made before the treaty.
In 1968, London, Moscow and Washington signed the Non-proliferation Treaty. By 1970, 98 countries had signed it. The treaty required nuclear weapon nations to make effective moves toward cessation of the nuclear bomb. The treaty required nuclear weapon nations to submit their nuclear power and research facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Association. By 1974,
Those who thrive on mediocre nostalgia would have enjoyed the Righteous Brothers last Saturday night in Hoch Auditorium. They proved that some people love any kind of music, but brings back memories—no matter how bad that music is.
Warwicke saves night
But the Righteous Brothers are intelligent performers who
KENN LOUDEN
Entertainment Editor
know how to make a back. They even admitted to the audience that the old favorite "Your M soul and My Heart's Inspiration" was a "real turkey." Give them an "A" for honesty.
Unfortunately, honesty was about all the Righteous who were completely unoriginal, and their only new song "Rock and Roll Heaven" is nothing but commercial, nostalgic tripe.
KANSAN review
The Rightmost Brothers told a few jokes, but the biggest laugh this reviewer got was watching a show of the speakers when it went out in the middle of a song. But, I forgot, I'm not supposed to hear these shows in my review, or that the show was 25 minutes late in getting
In addition to having to listen to old songs that weren't even good when they were new, the audience discovered that the Righteous Brothers are losing their voices.
Dionne Warwick, fortunately, more than made up for the initial disappointment at the righteous mess.
started and that the ushers were placing people in the wrong seats.
almost 40 nations had opened their nuclear stations to the inspectors of the association.
She opened with two old numbers, "Never Going to Give Up" and "Going Out of My Head." The response to these old favorites was great. The songs were good, and Warwick knew how to play.
Warwick walked onto the stage with the style she has had throughout her career—cool, confident and aware of her abilities. She was backed by a miniature orchestra.
Warwick is a professional entertainer, and she can make the audience feel as if she were
singing to them. Rather than stay center-stage, she walked from end to end so that everyone could feel that they were a part of the audience.
She went into a medley of some of her famous Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs including "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" "What Do You Need to Fall in Lovelock?" and "Walk or By Sure, the songs were old, but they were good. We still even seem have improved with age.
"Warwick sang some new songs, including her hit single "Then Came You" and songs by other artists, including a mellow rendition of "Touch Me in the Morning."
In 1972 strategic arms limitations (SALT) accords, the United States and the Soviet Union reached a permanent limit on defensive missile systems, but agreed to only a five-year pact on offensive armor. In 1983 SALT accords also limited land-sensitive missiles, but didn't cover other strategic weapons (like bombers) or any halt in missile improvements.
The United States began improving the strike capability of the strategic weapons at its disposal. The most recent addition to the U.S. arsenal, the advanced battlefield-targeted warhead (MIRR), allows one missile to deliver several warheads to different targets. The United States is advancing MIRR technology in order to each independently target a warhead is maneuverable in flight. The U.S. military also is developing a new submarine to carry advanced Trident missiles; a new supernumerary bison, the B-10; a B-22 and a missile that can be launched from planes. The Soviet Union, which may have similar projects, can hardly be expected to limit its own capabilities against the United States produces technological development after another.
At present the two superpowers between them can deliver 8,400 megatons of explosives to a target at times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb. This means the United States has 36 nuclear bombs for each Soviet city having a population of more than 1 million Union has 11 bombs for each U.S. city of 100,000 or more. The United States and the Soviet Union each have about 200 cities
Although relations between the United States and the Soviet Union are much better than they were a few years ago, the
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the permanent possibility of thermonuclear holocaust."
In 1965, the poet W. H. Auden wrote:
Can mankind survive this continuous threat? Isn't it possible that the threat of all-clear color everything man does?
"Whether these weapons will ever be used and, if so, when, how and by whom, are questions neither I nor anybody else can answer. Whether we live or die will be up to chance. Consequently, the existence of these devices has no effect on daily life, either practically or emotionally."
The full danger in the proliferation of nuclear devices has been realized only recently. The world is now small enough to be carried and detonated by one man. A consideration of the recent incidents of terrorism leads to the grim realization that a small number of countries could entire nation at bay with one carefully placed bomb.
Perhaps the only benefit derived from the threat of the bomb is that it has prevented a war. Considering the risks and involved, such an advantage hardly seems worth the price.
Auden grew up before the atomic bomb. Today's young people have grown up with it. He wrote "Seven Days in May" and author of several books dealing with nuclear weapons, writes: "The bomb has had a wide range upon the young... Of hundreds of letters I've received from high school and college students, few fail to mention the poignant and lasting passion."
The possibility of theft or misuse of nuclear weapons could be reduced if there were fewer weapons in fewer places. Henry Stimson, former Secretary of War, said in 1946: "The focus of the problem does not lie in the atom; it resides in
The Soviets can't be expected to limit their nuclear development while the United States produces more bombers and missiles.
threat of massive destruction is perhaps greater than ever before. As the number of nuclear warheads grows and more countries join the nuclear warfare will probably increase. If a poor nation like India can develop an atomic bomb, how much longer can it be before some nation in the world's worst spot, the Middle East, receives an atomic bomb of its own?
Robert McNamara wrote: "Every future age of man will be an atomic age, and if man is going to have to be overshadowed with
the hearts of men." There are only two solutions to the threat that has plagued the world for decades, reducing nuclear stockpiles, requires the complete cooperation of the countries that possess the secret of the heart and second solution is unacceptable.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a monthly publication of the Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, has a doomsday clock at its center. In August, the clock advanced three minutes. It is now minutes until midnight.
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