Bohr managed to convince all three of them that the Allies should, at least, negotiate with the Soviets on the control of nuclear technology. At the same time, Bohr managed to relay his concerns to FDR through his relationship with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. 4/n
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FDR was surprisingly receptive to the idea. He asked Bohr to meet with Churchill and report back. Bohr, with Lord Cherwell, met Churchill and tried to convince him. 5/n
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Churchill was aggressively and completely opposed, insisting on total secrecy and no communication with the Soviets. 6/n
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Bohr argued secrecy was futile since the Soviets would be able to develop their own atom bomb within a decade. Churchill would hear none of it. The dejected Bohr informed FDR about the meeting through Frankfurter. FDR reassured Bohr and expressed his desire to meet again. 7/n
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Shortly afterwards, FDR and Churchill met to discuss the nuclear question. A short, secret agreement was reached: The nuclear program will continue to be secret. The US&UK will continue to cooperate on weapons development after the war. Bohr will be put under surveillance. 8/n
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The next day, Churchill wrote to Lord Cherwell saying he was considering having Bohr imprisoned. FDR and Bohr never met again. 9/n
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Scientists wishing to influence statesmen’s judgments did not succeed because they did not understand the underlying political calculation the statesmen were weighing and how they would view new evidence presented to them in the context of prior geopolitical understanding. 10/n
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With the benefit of historical hindsight, we know that in fact Stalin already knew about the Manhattan Project and had spies reporting to him. 11/n
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Perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt would have gone along with Bohr’s plan for cooperation with the Soviets not on the basis of any new technical information, but rather if they had been convinced that in fact Stalin already knew their secret. 12/n
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Samo Burja Retweeted Samo Burja
This thread is part of a series on Bismarck Analysis’ case study on the development of nuclear weapons. Check out the other threads in the quote tweet here: https://twitter.com/SamoBurja/status/1388211279307984899 … You can read the full case study here: https://www.bismarckanalysis.com/Nuclear_Weapons_Development_Case_Study.pdf …
Samo Burja added,
Samo Burja @SamoBurjaLong before the first atom bombs were used in 1945, nuclear scientists tried to prevent a world where opposed military powers had nuclear weapons. They failed. Why? Read the newly-released case study by Bismarck Analysis here: https://www.bismarckanalysis.com/Nuclear_Weapons_Development_Case_Study.pdf …Show this thread6 replies 1 retweet 30 likesShow this thread
if scientists had some new weapons development, on the scale of nukes, or a new bioweapon, or the hardware and ai behind a fully autonomous drone, how could they keep it from being usurped and abused by governments? or is it basically impossible
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Replying to @DanielleFong @SamoBurja
nvm i am going to read the full paper
0 replies 0 retweets 1 likeThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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