GREGORY D. KOBLENTZ

The alternative deterrent was to maintain an army of over 2 million men overseas in both Europe and Asia, and the cost was much greater than the then perceived cost of nuclear weapons. At the time no one figured the cost of coping with the radioactive material and waste as well as the cleanup of nuclear bomb factories like Hanford. These costs were still not known byt the 21st century.

There have been dozens of serious nuclear accidents almost all of which were withheld from the public and even many of the civilian scientists who were trying to make the bombs error proof, but who did not know the details of the kinds of human errors that were being committed. The motivations for the secrecy were multiple. There was the usual one of saving the military from embarrassment which is typical throughout the government where they have the right to classify information. But another reason was the military leaders did not want the civilians to regain control. See {637984}. Perhaps most important, they did not want to provide ammunition for the anti-nuclear movement to have the incidents with which they could scare the public and erode public support for a large nuclear weapons program.

The alternative deterrent was to maintain an army of over 2 million men overseas in both Europe and Asia, and the cost was much greater than the then perceived cost of nuclear weapons. At the time no one figured the cost of coping with the radioactive material and waste as well as the cleanup of nuclear bomb factories like Hanford. These costs were still not known byt the 21st century.

There have been dozens of serious nuclear accidents almost all of which were withheld from the public and even many of the civilian scientists who were trying to make the bombs error proof, but who did not know the details of the kinds of human errors that were being committed. The motivations for the secrecy were multiple. There was the usual one of saving the military from embarrassment which is typical throughout the government where they have the right to classify information. But another reason was the military leaders did not want the civilians to regain control. See {637984}. Perhaps most important, they did not want to provide ammunition for the anti-nuclear movement to have the incidents with which they could scare the public and erode public support for a large nuclear weapons program.