I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Introduction
A. Origins of the Term "Weapons of Mass Destruction"
B. A Variety of Increasingly Destructive WMD
C. The Aftermath of Two Nuclear Bombings
D. On the Urgency to Eliminate all WMD:
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto
Introduction
Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) have the capacity to inflict death and destruction on a massive scale and they do so indiscriminately. The nuclear variety can kill large numbers of humans, animals and plants, and cause great damage to man-made or natural objects, buildings, dams, mountains, etc. The mere existence of WMD is a calamitous threat, and their use is an ever increasing probability. It appears that only their complete elimination by all parties can prevent their eventual use.
During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union built up enormous stockpiles with tens of thousands of nuclear bombs, missile warheads, and artillery shells—so many that this defense strategy was called MAD for Mutually Assured Destruction. Moreover, these two world powers also amassed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, which are the two other principal types of modern WMD.
The nuclear weapons alone are sufficient to exterminate all life on earth many times over, for instance, through a nuclear winter. With the development of reliable intercontinental missiles during the 1960s, it became possible for nuclear weapons to be delivered anywhere in the world. Missiles stationed close to the adversary's major cities, for instance, on submarines off the coast, can reach them in 10 to 50 minutes.
There have been at least four major false alarms. The most recent in 1995 almost resulted in the U.S. or USSR/Russia launching its weapons in retaliation for a supposed attack that were actually military exercises or war games. Additionally, during the Cold War the U.S. and USSR came close to nuclear warfare several times, most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As of 2006, there are estimated to be at least 27,000 nuclear weapons held by at least eight countries, 96 percent of them in the possession of the United States and Russia.
A. Origins of the Term "Weapons of Mass Destruction"
The term weapons of mass destruction has been in general use since at least 1937 when it was used to describe massed formations of bomber aircraft for the purpose of "terror bombing." The first reported usage of the term was by the Rev. Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, as part of his 1937 Christmas sermon broadcast on national radio. In an address titled "Christian Responsibility," Lang is quoted as saying:
Who can think at this present time without a sickening of the heart of the appalling slaughter, the suffering, the manifold misery brought by war to Spain and to China? Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean, waged as it would be with all the new weapons of mass destruction?
Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing civilian targets in order to break the morale of the enemy, make its civilian population panic, bend the enemy's political leadership to the attacker's will, to "punish" an enemy, or satisfy the need for vengeance.
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1936-39 during the Spanish Civil War. Many cities were bombed in this conflict, including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga, Bilbao, Alicante, and Valladolid. However, the foremost example was the aerial bombardment of Guernica in the Basque Country (northern Spain). It was an attack on April 26, 1937 by planes of the German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" and subordinate Italian Fascists from the Corpo Truppe Volontarie expeditionary force organized as Aviazione Legionaria. The raid resulted in great devastation and loss of life. This bombing was leading to the seminal painting of "Guernica" by the artist Picasso showing all the horror and terror of such attacks.
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1939-45 during World War II. Terror bombing started with Nazi Germany's raids on Rotterdam/Netherlands and English cities. But it was fully developed by allied air forces, mainly American and English, with carpet and fire bombings. The fire bombings of such cities as Hamburg and Dresden, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan, caused tens of thousands of civilians to die in a single night. The fire consumes all the oxygen in the air, thus, people suffocate. Others were killed by detonating aerial mines that generated high air pressure waves that would bust the lungs of their victims. These bombings in Germany by Allied air forces resulted in the killing of between 400,000 and 600,000 civilians of which about 80,000 were children. For the most horrific terror bombing see "The Aftermath of Two Nuclear Bombings" below.
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1937-43 in China. The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, too, frequently used fire bombings aimed at non-military targets. It started with the bombing of Nanjing and Canton, which began on the 22nd and 23rd of September 1937. There were about 5,000 raids from February 1938 to August 1943 that targeted other cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing.
Casualties of a mass panic during a Japanese air raid in Chongqing/China.
(Photo source: Wikimedia Commons)
B. A Variety of Increasingly Destructive WMD
a. Nuclear weapons derive their destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. As a result, even a nuclear weapon with a small yield is significantly more powerful than the largest conventional explosives, and a single small weapon is capable of destroying an entire city as demonstrated by the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Power increased from an energy equivalent of 13 thousand tons of TNT (dynamite) used on Hiroshima to over 50 million tons of TNT released by the "Tsar Bomba" in a test by the former Soviet Union. This is an increase in power by a factor of 3,800. Due to constraints in fitting them into the space and weight requirements of missile warheads, most hydrogen bombs are considerably smaller than this.
b. Chemical weapons consist of liquids and gases that choke their victims, poison their blood, blister their skin, or disrupt their nervous system. Chlorine gas (a choking agent) and mustard gas (a blistering agent) were fired in artillery shells against entrenched troops during World War I early in the 20th century and toward the end of the same century in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–90).
c. Biological weapons contain natural toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Blown or sprayed over populated areas, they cause limited but severe outbreaks of such deadly diseases as anthrax, pneumonic plague, or smallpox. Biological weapons have not been used in modern war since the Japanese spread plague-infected lice in areas of China during World War II.
d. Radiological weapons have often been suggested as a possible weapon of terrorism used to create panic and casualties in densely populated areas. They could also render a great deal of property useless for an extended period. These weapons are also known as Radiological Dispersion Devices (RDD). They are intended to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation. Such a device is commonly named a dirty bomb because it is not a true nuclear fusion or fission weapon, thus, it does not yield the same destructive power. It uses conventional explosives to spread radioactive material, most commonly the spent fuels from nuclear power plants or radioactive medical waste.
C. The Aftermath of Two Nuclear Bombings In the history of warfare, two nuclear weapons have been detonated — both by the United States, during the closing days of World War II: 6 August 1945 on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" with a destructive power equivalent to 13,000 tons of TNT. Two days later, broadcasts from Radio Tokyo described the destruction observed in Hiroshima as: "Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death." The fires that followed destroyed 92% of the 76,000 buildings in the city. According to most estimates, this bombing killed approximately 70,000 people due to immediate effects of the blast. By the end of 1945, estimates of total deaths range from 90,000 to 140,000, due to burns, acute radiation sickness and related disease, aggravated by lack of medical resources. Some estimates state up to 200,000 had died by 1950, due to cancer and other long-term effects. As of August 6, 1997, there were 202,118 names of known victims on the empty tomb/monument in Hiroshima Peace Park. 9 August 1945 on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" with a destructive power equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT. Although this atomic bomb was considered much stronger than the one exploded over Hiroshima, the terrain of Nagasaki prevented the bomb from doing as much damage. Yet the decimation was still great. According to most estimates, this bombing killed approximately 40,000 people due to the immediate effects of the blast. by the end of this year about 70,000 people had died. The horrendous effects of the bombing for decades to come were the same as those mentioned above for Hiroshima.A survivor described the damage to people: The appearance of people was . . . well, they all had skin blackened by burns. . . . They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldn't tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back. . . . They held their arms bent [forward] like this . . . and their skin - not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too - hung down. . . . If there had been only one or two such people . . . perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. . . . Many of them died along the road - I can still picture them in my mind -- like walking ghosts (quoted in Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima, New York: Random House, 1967). Even 50 years after these blasts, atomic bomb victims still suffered physical and emotional trauma. They live in terror of diseases, the symptoms of which could arise at any time, (liver, stomach, lung, and thyroid cancer, as well as leukemia, all caused by residual radiation). Many of them live in the shadow of death while in terrible pain.
Hiroshima, in the aftermath of the bombing.
Photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi's back injuries taken
in January 1946 by a U.S. Marine photographer.
D. On the Urgency to Eliminate all WMD: The Russell-Einstein Manifesto By Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein and a Group of International Scientists. First issued on July 9, 1955 in London Today (2008), this message remains as important as ever and applies to all weapons of mass destruction not just nuclear. There are presently some 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world. In the United States and Russia there are more than 4,000 on hair-trigger alert, ready to be fired in minutes (below my emphases). Moreover, besides their devastating use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their have been four incidents that brought the world within minutes of an all-out (mutually assured destruction) nuclear war between the super powers. Statement In the tragic situation which confronts humanity, we feel that scientists should assemble in conference to appraise the perils that have arisen as a result of the development of weapons of mass destruction, and to discuss a resolution in the spirit of the appended draft. We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt. The world is full of conflicts; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic struggle between Communism and anti-Communism. Almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but we want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings and consider yourselves only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history, and whose disappearance none of us can desire. We shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another. All, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it. We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties? The general public, and even many men in positions of authority, have not realized what would be involved in a war with nuclear bombs. The general public still thinks in terms of the obliteration of cities. It is understood that the new bombs are more powerful than the old, and that, while one A-bomb could obliterate Hiroshima, one H-bomb could obliterate the largest cities, such as London, New York, and Moscow. No doubt in an H-bomb war great cities would be obliterated. But this is one of the minor disasters that would have to be faced. If everybody in London, New York, and Moscow were exterminated, the world might, in the course of a few centuries, recover from the blow. But we now know, especially since the Bikini test, that nuclear bombs can gradually spread destruction over a very much wider area than had been supposed. It is stated on very good authority that a bomb can now be manufactured which will be 2,500 times as powerful as that which destroyed Hiroshima [The Soviet Union's "Tsar Bomba" was actually 3,800 times as powerful]. Such a bomb, if exploded near the ground or under water, sends radio-active particles into the upper air. They sink gradually and reach the surface of the earth in the form of a deadly dust or rain. It was this dust which infected the Japanese fishermen and their catch of fish. No one knows how widely such lethal radio-active particles might be diffused, but the best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration. Many warnings have been uttered by eminent men of science and by authorities in military strategy. None of them will say that the worst results are certain. What they do say is that these results are possible, and no one can be sure that they will not be realized. We have not yet found that the views of experts on this question depend in any degree upon their politics or prejudices. They depend only, so far as our researches have revealed, upon the extent of the particular expert's knowledge. We have found that the men who know most are the most gloomy. Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war.
The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than anything else is that the term "mankind" feels vague and abstract. People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity. They can scarcely bring themselves to grasp that they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly. And so they hope that perhaps war may be allowed to continue provided modern weapons are prohibited. This hope is illusory. Whatever agreements not to use H-bombs had been reached in time of peace, they would no longer be considered binding in time of war, and both sides would set to work to manufacture H-bombs as soon as war broke out, for, if one side manufactured the bombs and the other did not, the side that manufactured them would inevitably be victorious. Although an agreement to renounce nuclear weapons as part of a general reduction of armaments would not afford an ultimate solution, it would serve certain important purposes. First, any agreement between East and West is to the good in so far as it tends to diminish tension. Second, the abolition of thermo-nuclear weapons, if each side believed that the other had carried it out sincerely, would lessen the fear of a sudden attack in the style of Pearl Harbor, which at present keeps both sides in a state of nervous apprehension. We should, therefore, welcome such an agreement though only as a first step. Most of us are not neutral in feeling, but, as human beings, we have to remember that, if the issues between East and West are to be decided in any manner that can give any possible satisfaction to anybody, whether Communist or anti-Communist, whether Asian or European or American, whether White or Black, then these issues must not be decided by war. We should wish this to be understood, both in the East and in the West. There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death. Resolution:
We invite this Congress, and through it the scientists of the world and the general public, to subscribe to the following resolution: "In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them."
Signed: Professor Max Born (Professor of Theoretical Physics at Berlin, Frankfurt, and Gottingen, and of Natural Philosophy, Edinburgh; Nobel Prize in physics)
Professor P.W. Bridgman (Professor of Physics, Harvard' University; Nobel Prize in physics)
Professor Albert Einstein (Nobel Prize in Physics)
Professor L. Infeld (Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw)
Professor J. F. Joliot-Curie (Professor of Physics at the College de France; Nobel Prize in chemistry)
Professor H. J. Muller (Professor of Zoology at the University of Indiana; Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine)
Professor Linus Pauling (Professor of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology; Nobel Prize in chemistry)
Professor J. Rotblat (Professor of Physics, University of London; Medical College of St. Barnholomew's Hospital; Nobel Peace Prize)
Bertrand Russell (One of the founders of mathematical logic and analytic philosophy; Nobel Prize in literature, "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought")
Professor Hideki Yukawa (Professor of Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University; Nobel Prize in physics (Rotblat 1972)