Oligarchs were secure. They had their terror weapon. Nuclear weaponry and everything having to do with uranium production had been transformed into a very obvious product of terror. This bomb, the result of working class labors and minds, was now the very embodiment of technological revolution. The Bomb reaffirmed a new definition of power for this social class. The Bomb was a reminder of ultimate power, of supreme power. There would be no control of the military privatization of this weapon. Here was a dynamic tension never before encountered. These were weapons which could destroy the planet. Moreover, the Bomb had not simply refocused power among mere researchers, those who first secured proof of its potentials. Now, power had been permanently concentrated in the military. It was at this point in time that rulership realized the impossibility of regulating or containing The Weapon. Once in military hands, there the weapon would remain. Though the weapon was no ordinary explosive, the military attitude concerning secrecy and national security remained the same. None could bind the consciousness which had both produced The Weapon and the new attitude which surroimded its development Here was property of a complex ownership. Having materials, the result of oligarchic patronage, the secrets were now the permanent prof>-erty of bureaucracy! Power remained in the military. The rulership would do its all to seize the whole nuclear technology package.
The concept of nuclear regulation signalled the soft first reassertions of demands fi-om the oligarchy. The ultimate aim of these overtures was to “secure the property”. The rulership promoted the case that the nuclear processing systems were nothing more than new industry, and definitely their property. Here at least they were on the begging end. The Atomic Energy Commission was the attempt, at a higher than martial bureaucratic level, to take the quantifiable accoutrements of the Nuclear Age: uranium, nuclear bombs, processing plants, assembly facilities, researchers, academic advisers, finished weapons, and military leadership. Now military and academic personnel, along with the purification plants, the uranium mines, in short every piece of the Nuclear Industry which was not classified, became tagged property. But there was a catch.
Were they to exercise the full weight of their means in obtaining the materials of nuclear industry, the highly classified secrets would yet remain unobtainable by Federal Law. Completely separate from the civilian population, the severity of military position in the hierarchy provided a powerful deadlock between those who claimed the nuclear secrets as “their property” and those who claimed trusteeship of the national defense. The military would divulge none of the information. The only way an information “leak” could be arranged would be through bureaucratic agencies of command, none of which would dare interfere. Military correctly resisted even executive pressures to release the secrets to the United States Government, citing the imposture of exposing such highly classified and potentially deadly secrets to any potential security risk. By exerting the full measure of their privileges in this respect, they effectively isolated themselves fi'om every other level of the executive bureaucracy. In short, the military seized the secrets of the nuclear weapons, and by so doing, became now the principle owner of that property. No private militia group could be mounted to seize the power back. Who would moimt an armed assault on the United States military?
A nuclear power struggle had begun, one which moved within the offices of bureaucracy in deep tides. Agencies, divisions, and branches of military jurisdiction maintained silence. The fnghtful power of this martial consortium was one whose newly privatized power would not easily bow to or conform with superior command at any level. This is why President Eisenhower, years after the incident, spoke out against the new consolidation. Publicly indicted by his statements, the phrase “military-industrial complex” was first heard in a new light His forcefiol statements were the result of experience with the iimer machinations of a short-lived military rule, in which the very Commander-in-Chief had been restricted from exercising his full authority.
The nuclear secrets! They held the power in this new nuclear arena now. The balance of powers-bureaucratic were now feeling the effects of nuclear power. Nuclear power had modified and redefined every familiar goveriunen-tal relationship in which politicians cind bureaucrats once freely moved under superior command. Now there would be an end to these slippages hither and thither. Impervious security would now limit and restrict aristocratic demands on every bureaucratic level. Transforming and isolating the bureaucratic relationships as well as every legislated limit of these authorities, a nuclear-empow-ered military began exercising their newfound strength in the political arenas. Here was an intriguing standoff, one which had been awaited for a long, long time.
Nuclear weaponry marked a new definition in military power. Military concentrated this power to itself. After World War II, military hierarchy began recognizing that technology alone could be the answer to a new warfare. During this time period strange and bold related projects began emerging from resecirch laboratories across the nation. The fear gave way to a hubris of power. To wield the nuclear weapon was a matter of choice now. To use it, to imply its use in mildly threatening gestures, was a liberating pride which went deep into the military heart With military in control of the weaponry, regulation was a mere clattering of words. Because of the Bomb, military ceased considering small theatres of conflict, and suddenly thought of war in global terms only. The vast arsenal used in the former war was now forgotten. The Bomb now literally exploded every possible battle theatre, every wartime scenario out into a huge scale, the scale of a nuclear blast. Here was indeed the power to destroy whole nations in a few strikes. The Bomb marked a sharp division between everything past and all things future. The dividing line was not vague, it was drawn by a nuclear blast in New Mexico. The Nuclear Age.
For military, there was no past Everything was future. The white blast and the thimderous unhinging of things terrestrial seemed to wipe away all of the past, all of the wars, all of the errors. Now and henceforth, all weaponry had to be nuclear. Discussion of nuclear weaponry was now a routine function of military conversation. New applications of the hideous energy were required. What else could the Bomb do in warfare? Could nuclear weapons be made to any specification? To any size? How big? How small? Could one “shape” and direct the charge? Could other nuclear applications be devised besides those which used fission reactions? Military demands now directed the engineers, who conferred with physicists on a regular basis. Military, academici, and industry worked together.
Up to this time, nuclear weaponry was deployed by Air Force superfortresses. Differing branches of the military began struggling over the weaponry, and then began struggling one against the another. The Army demanded its due, its ovm nuclear applications. In response, military engineers now began developing a new breed of nuclear weapons systems, tailor made to each of the military branches. At the time, these were simple nuclear analogues of the past arsenals and weaponry: nuclear shells, nuclear cannons, nuclear mines, nuclear torpedoes. Testing in the field began anew. Small or large, few of these were announced. Expansions of nuclear pride followed each upward radioactive plume, as nuclear blasts became a routine experience for local residents upon whom deadly isotopic dust settled with the winds and rains. The military wished the extension of its elite new nuclear force into the international scene. Such extreme power and an extreme sense of postwar victory became a fearful combination for NATO allies who now had no command of the situation. The American Military had no inclination to share its secrets either.
President Truman made it clear that the nuclear secret would remain safely in American hands. US Military was therefore free to unsheathe the flaming sword at any time, letting slip the sheath before allies and enemies alike as often as it wished. There was no argiunent NATO tried using diplomacy, the magick of words, to twist a pathway into the secret. All to no avail. The problem of nuclear proliferation, at this early phase of the age, was not an American dilemma. The Bomb modified military thought completely. Many military leaders were no longer able to foresee the possibility of small local conflicts, the more conventional and traditional encounters, without invoking “the Bomb”. Battle strategies were each gauged against the diameter of a nuclear bomb. The pride of nuclear weaponry pressured an over inflated philosophy of war, one which eventually proved unrealistic. The meetings were filled with a euphoric laughter, there seeming to be virtually no reason to engage battle studies any longer. The Bomb solved all the problems of war.
The Bomb seemed to provide a neutralization of fear among military leaders. Having the Bomb was imagined to be a magick bullet for all and any world-be enemy assaults. With the threat of war no longer being considered, the nation could sleep without fear. The only lingering fear was fear of the weaponry itself and distrust of those who held it in their possession. With the advent of the Bomb Foreign obstructions against a nation with ultimate earthly power would now be laughable and humorous. Diplomatic interactions would no longer be strenuous and laborious. With the nuclear bomb backing one’s words, international discussions could be terminated whenever desired. Nuclear weaponry replaced every conventional weapon, a new arsenal being required by an ever more powerful military. The military had become an independent agency, distanced so far from every earthly power by virtue of its newfoimd fearless hcuidling of the ultimate fire.
The enlarging effect on the military mind, brought about by the possession of this single weaponry, absolutely shocked every superior coirunand. The shock threaded its twisting pathway back through the bureaucracy, through the Congress, through the Commander in Chief, and straight through every part of the caste labyrinth leading directly into the aristocratic centers of national control. In the heat of this time period. General MacArthur was publicly brought down for planning the routine tactical use of such weaponry in an impending Asian crisis. This public rebuke, delivered to one so highly esteemed, marked a critical event in our national history. It signals the reemergence of control in an arena where, otherwise, there are no control factors.
World History
