Bombing the Marshall Islands: a Cold War tragedy

by Parsons, Keith M.

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Title Statements

Full title :Bombing the Marshall Islands : a Cold War tragedy / Keith M. Parsons, Robert A. Zaballa.

Summary

During the Cold War, the United States conducted atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific. The total explosive yield of these tests was 108 megatons, equivalent to the detonation of one Hiroshima bomb per day over nineteen years. These tests, particularly Castle Bravo, the largest one, had tragic consequences, including the irradiation of innocent people and the permanent displacement of many native Marshallese. Keith M. Parsons and Robert Zaballa tell the story of the development and testing of thermonuclear weapons and the effects of these tests on their victims and on the popular and intellectual culture. These events are also situated in their Cold War context and explained in terms of the prevailing hopes, fears, and beliefs of that age. In particular, the narrative highlights the obsessions and priorities of top American officials, such as Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:©2017

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Cambridge University Press
Place of Publication:Cambridge, United Kingdom
Language:eng
Publication Date:©2017

The Physical Object

Description:x, 239 pages : : illustrations ; : 24 cm

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9781107047327, 1107047323, 9781107697904, 1107697905
oclc:ocn982248852
LC Classification:DU710
Dewey Decimal:623.4/51190287

Introduction: Sunrise in the west; snow in the tropics -- Operation Crossroads: the world's first nuclear disaster -- The coming of the "super" -- Runaway bomb -- The victims of Castle Bravo -- Monsters and movements: the cultural "fallout" of nuclear testing -- Bikini postmortem, part I: Public perceptions and official obsessions -- Bikini postmortem, part II: Nuclear policy and nuclear tests -- Epilogue: back to Bikini? -- Appendix 1: Ultimate weapons -- Appendix 2: Radiation exposure, dosage, and its biomedical effects.

Subjects

Armes nucléaires -- Essais Cold War Guerre froide History Kernwaffentest Marshall Islands Marshallinseln Nuclear weapons -- Testing Nuclear weapons -- Testing -- United St… Nuclear weapons -- Testing. -- Marshall… Nuclear weapons testing victims Nuclear weapons testing victims -- Mars… United States