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hunter

(40,736 posts)
10. Every "alternative history" following the success of the Trinity Test is moot.
Mon Jun 10, 2019, 08:15 PM
Jun 2019

The U.S.A. would have kept dropping atomic bombs on Japan until they surrendered or there was nothing left of Japan. Instantly, after the successful Trinity Test, one million American lives were no longer at stake.

The U.S.A. didn't stop with the plutonium bomb that destroyed Nagasaki. We built more than 100 "Fat Man" type bombs before 1950 and only quit building them because we had better bombs.

In too many disturbing ways the destruction of Nagasaki was an experiment. Some factions in the U.S.A. wanted to see what these plutonium bombs could do.

U-235 gun bombs, like the bomb that that destroyed Hiroshima, were too expensive, and just too damned scary as weapons. They could go off by accident. Oops. Mushroom cloud. One less military base.

But mostly it was the money.

Many people don't recognize the scale of the Manhattan Project. The goal shifted, from fighting an all-out nuclear war with Germany to world domination.

Thus the subsequent horror when other nations, starting with the Soviet Union, built their own bombs.

They would have done it anyways, even without espionage. That's the way science works.

You ask the right question, you do the right experiment, and you get your answer.


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Was not the distruction Wellstone ruled Jun 2019 #1
I was thinking this as well, but now it seems it was more of an organizational problem. hunter Jun 2019 #5
Forgot about the Boron Wellstone ruled Jun 2019 #7
There's a fascinating TV miniseries, The Heavy Water War, The Velveteen Ocelot Jun 2019 #2
I'll look for it. hunter Jun 2019 #8
Depleted uranium zipplewrath Jun 2019 #3
Depleted uranium is used because there are huge stockpiles left over from uranium enrichment. hunter Jun 2019 #4
One of my Dad's favorite jokes SCantiGOP Jun 2019 #6
Every "alternative history" following the success of the Trinity Test is moot. hunter Jun 2019 #10
"The U.S.A. would have kept dropping atomic bombs on Japan until they surrendered" Javaman Jun 2019 #16
Caution zipplewrath Jun 2019 #11
This is all well documented by Richard Rhodes localroger Jun 2019 #9
It's harder than one thinks zipplewrath Jun 2019 #12
I remember when I first read about this, still amazes me that it was allowed to happen... Javaman Jun 2019 #18
To quote from the article posted: hunter Jun 2019 #15
Actually it was laughable localroger Jun 2019 #20
that was such a brilliant book. Probably my favorite. nt Javaman Jun 2019 #17
The real irony SCantiGOP Jun 2019 #13
I read a lot of alt history and I always wondered... Javaman Jun 2019 #19
Many Russians were willing to embrace the Germans as saviors localroger Jun 2019 #21
In 1943, after his famous meeting with Heisenberg, Neils Bohr escaped Denmark to England... NNadir Jun 2019 #14
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