Dissent and Development

This chapter examines the arguments that had divided U.S. atomic science against a changing landscape of decision. These include: arguments about the feasibility of the Super, a matter only decisively settled by the first test, and about its cost, in monetary terms and in terms of precious plutonium foregone. Two other key arguments are reviewed. The first is that even if the Super proved feasible and cost effective, it had little military utility. The second is that even were deployment in war to be considered desirable, so massive a weapon would be undeliverable. On each of these issues the ground shifted under the feet of the participants in the space of just five years.