Smyth Report
LC Class 595388938 | | |
Text | Atomic Energy for Military Purposes at Internet Archive |
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The Smyth Report (officially Atomic Energy for Military Purposes) is the common name of an administrative history written by American
Smyth was commissioned to write the report by
The Smyth Report sold almost 127,000 copies in its first eight printings, and was on The New York Times best-seller list from mid-October 1945 until late January 1946. It has been translated into over 40 languages.
Background
In early 1944, Smyth raised the possibility of producing an unclassified report for the general public on the achievements of the Manhattan Project. The director of the Metallurgical Laboratory,
The Report was to serve two functions. First, it was to be the public and official U.S. government account of the development of the atomic bombs, outlining the development of the then-secret laboratories and production sites at
Smyth stated the purpose of the Smyth Report in the Preface:
The ultimate responsibility for our nation's policy rests on its citizens and they can discharge such responsibilities wisely only if they are informed. The average citizen cannot be expected to understand clearly how an atomic bomb is constructed or how it works but there is in this country a substantial group of engineers and scientists who can understand such things and who can explain the potentialities of atomic bombs to their fellow citizens. The present report is written for this professional group and is a matter-of-fact, general account of work in the USA since 1939 aimed at the production of such bombs. It is neither a documented official history nor a technical treatise for experts. Secrecy requirements have affected both the detailed content and general emphasis so that many interesting developments have been omitted.[7]
This contrasted somewhat with what Groves wrote in the foreword:[8]
All pertinent scientific information which can be released to the public at this time without violating the needs of national security is contained in this volume. No requests for additional information should be made to private people or organizations associated directly or indirectly with the project. People disclosing or securing additional information by any means whatsoever without authorization are subject to severe penalties under the Espionage Act.[9]
Writing
Smyth possessed security clearances necessary to visit project sites, access documents and to discuss the work with the research personnel. Groves approved Smyth's request to hire another Princeton physicist, Lincoln G. Smith, as a research assistant. A letter to the Manhattan Project's senior managers,
The purpose is to give clearly and promptly recognition to those who have worked so long and necessarily so anonymously ... To accomplish his purpose, Dr. Smyth must have rather complete information concerning your phase of the project including access to necessary documents ... [and] information and advice from you and your principal assistants.[10]
Since Smyth still had his commitments at Princeton and Chicago, he could only work on the report part-time.[11] He wrote the report in his office in Princeton's Palmer Laboratory. Bars were installed on the windows of Smyth's office and the one adjacent to it. The hallway door to his office was locked and blocked by a large safe so that the only access was through the adjacent office, where there was an armed guard. The guards worked in eight-hour shifts, and one was present around the clock. When Smyth sent papers to Groves in Washington, D.C., they went by military courier.[12]
Smyth sent an outline and rough draft of the report to Groves for approval in August 1944, followed in February 1945 by drafts of the first twelve chapters, leaving only the final chapter to be completed.
Smyth and Tolman accepted a set of criteria, agreeing that information could be released under the conditions:
I. (A) That it is important to a reasonable understanding of what had been done on the project as a whole or (B) That it is of true scientific interest and likely to be truly helpful to scientific workers in this country and
II. (A) That it is already generally known by competent scientists or (B) that it can be deduced or guessed by competent scientists from what is already known, combined with the knowledge that the project was in the overall successful or
III. (A) That it has no real bearing on the production of atomic bombs or (B) That it could be discovered by a small group (15 of whom not over 5 would be senior men) of competent scientists working in a well-equipped college lab in a year's time or less.[16]
Writing to Oppenheimer in April 1945, Smyth noted that
All discussion of ordnance work is also to be removed. There is no objection to including the general statement of the ordnance problem and all the other parts of the problem, but the approaches to solution that have been made will be omitted. On the other hand, the feeling is that there is no objection to including the nuclear physics. The General believes that the metallurgical work and a considerable amount of the chemistry work should be excluded on the ground that it would be extremely difficult for the average scientist to carry out any of this work without supplies and material which would not be available to him. I am not entirely clear how this criterion should be applied, but it probably means the elimination of the metallurgical work on plutonium and at least of some of the chemistry.[17]
Tolman and his assistants finished making their changes in July 1945,[13] and Groves had copies sent out by courier to selected personnel. Each submitted a written report, which was returned with the courier and the manuscript.[14] These were busy people who sometimes only had a few days or even hours to look at the manuscript. Many, but not all, merely signed a statement saying that they were happy with it. Nichols, the commander of the Manhattan District, sent back a detailed review. He had concerns about the amount of credit being given to different people and organizations, and recommended that "full credit be given to H. D. Smyth for preparing it and that the statement be made that the Army has no responsibility for the report except for asking him to do it."[18] Smyth was given credit, but no such statement was issued.[18] To prepare the final draft for the printer, Groves brought typists with the required security clearances to Washington, D.C., from the Manhattan District's headquarters in Oak Ridge.[14]
Because the Manhattan Project was an Allied endeavor, Groves had to obtain permission from the British and American governments to publish the Smyth Report. A meeting was held on August 2, 1945 in the office of the
For his part, Chadwick, who had not yet read the manuscript, could not fathom why the Americans wanted to publish such a document.[20] When he did read it, he became quite alarmed. His concerns were addressed in a meeting with Groves and Conant, and he accepted their point of view. "I am now convinced," he wrote, "that the very special circumstances arising from the nature of the project, and of its organization, demand special treatment, and a report of this kind may well be necessary to maintain security of the really essential facts of the project."[19]
Publication
A thousand copies of the report were printed by
The original title of the report, before it was published in book form, was Nuclear Bombs: A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Nuclear Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940–1945. The word "nuclear" was changed to "atomic" because while the former was favored by physicists, it was not in common use by the general public at that time. This was the title used on the copyright certificate. The book was copyrighted to Smyth but issued with the statement that "reproduction in whole or in part is authorized and permitted". Groves had the report copyrighted by Smyth in order to prevent someone else from copyrighting it.[23]
Groves was concerned about the security implications of the title, so instead of having "Atomic Bombs" on the cover, it was left blank, and a rubber stamp was made. The intention was for this to be used on each copy before it was distributed. This was done for the copyright deposit copies, but not those given to the press or the public. The lumbering subtitle therefore became the title. A side effect of this was that it became generally known as the "Smyth Report".[23] Over the years, the term "nuclear" gradually gained traction, and by 1960 it had become more common than "atomic".[24]
In mid-1945, Smyth approached Datus C. Smith, the director of Princeton University Press, about the possibility of renting his printing plant to the government during a two-week summer shutdown so that Smyth could produce 5,000 copies of a top secret report. Smith's response was that he found it hard to imagine anyone needing to print 5,000 copies of a top secret report. He found it much easier to imagine delays due to unexpected printing problems, and his workers returning from summer vacation to find themselves locked out of a plant filled with top secret material. Under the circumstances, he felt that he could not risk this.[25]
After the Smyth Report was officially released, Smith immediately offered to publish it. Smyth patiently explained that anyone was free to publish it, but Princeton University Press was only willing to do so on the understanding that this would be "Smyth's edition". Meanwhile, Smyth approached
Princeton University Press received a copy of the typescript lithograph edition with hand corrections from Smyth on August 17, 1945. The
There were minor differences between the original text and the version published by Princeton. In the Princeton publication, first and middle names were added instead of the previous use of abbreviations. In response to public concerns about radioactivity, Groves had text added to paragraph 12.18 explaining how the height of the explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki reduced
Later editions also incorporated changes. Four typographical errors were found, and the word "photon" in paragraph 1.44 aroused so much correspondence from readers who mistakenly believed that it should be "proton" that it was decided to re-word the paragraph.[27] The British government became concerned that the Smyth Report did not cover the British part in the project, and issued its own 40-page report, which was incorporated into the fifth printing in November 1945 as Appendix 7. A two-page report by the Canadian government was added as Appendix 8.[30]
The Smyth Report was translated into over 40 different languages.
Reception
The first copies were delivered to bookstores on September 10. Many were wary of it, due to its technical nature, and feared that sales would be low. An exception was
The Smyth Report was on The New York Times bestseller list from October 14, 1945, until January 20, 1946. Between 1946 and when the Smyth Report went out of print in 1973, it went through eight printings, and Princeton University Press sold 62,612 paperback and 64,129 hardback copies.[30][34]
Groves did not intend the Smyth Report to be the last word on the project. It formed an addendum to the Manhattan District History, the official history of the project. This eventually consisted of 35 volumes with 39 appendices or supplements. It was written in the immediate postwar years by the chemists, metallurgists, physicists, and administrators who had worked on the project. Since there were no security restrictions, it covered every aspect of the Manhattan Project, but was itself classified. Most of it was declassified in the 1960s and 1970s and became available to scholars, except for some technical details on the construction of the bombs.[35]
In her 2008
Groves felt that:
on the whole, and considering the rather difficult conditions under which it was prepared, the Smyth Report was extraordinarily successful in its efforts to distribute credit fairly and accurately. It would have been impossible to have prepared any document for publication covering the work of the Manhattan District that every reader would have found to his liking. But the fact is that all those who had the greatest knowledge of the subject were nearly unanimous in approving its publication as it was finally written. And there can be no question that it excellently served its purpose as an essential source of accurate information, particularly for a news-hungry America in the early days after Nagasaki.[39]
Russian translation
The Soviet Union, eager to make progress on its own atomic weapon development and determined to follow the path that the Manhattan Project had found success with, commissioned a Russian translation of Atomic Energy for Military Purposes.[40] It was in typeset form by mid-November 1945,[41] and then was published by the State Railway Transportation Publishing House on January 30, 1946.[42] Some 30,000 copies were printed and it was widely distributed to the many scientists and engineers working in the Soviet effort.[41]
In a number of cases, the Soviets consulted the Smyth Report to see how they might deal with certain obstacles that had arisen in their project.[43] The deletion between the original text and the Princeton version concerning the poisoning effect was soon noticed by the Russian translators, and only served to highlight its importance to the Soviet project.[44][45][46]
As pioneering French nuclear weapons scientist Bertrand Goldschmidt later said,
The details revealed in the Smyth report were invaluable for any country launching into atomic work; for nothing is more important, when undertaking technical research over a wide field than knowing in advance which lines of approach can or cannot lead to success, even if this knowledge relates only to basic principles.[47]
Nonetheless, Goldschmidt believed, just as Chadwick had ultimately believed, that publication of the report was on balance wise, in that not revealing anything about the new weapon would lead to a public hunger for information and resultant leaks and unwarranted disclosures of information.[48]
Not everyone would agree: in 1947, United States Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss would call publication of the Smyth Report "a serious breach of security";[49] and in late 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower would say the Smyth Report had given away too much information, including the exact locations of the atomic materials production plants.[50]
Notes
- ^ "Henry Smyth". Array of Contemporary American Physicists. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
- ^ a b Smyth 1976, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Compton 1956, p. 100.
- ^ Smyth 1976, pp. 176–77.
- ^ Jones 1985, pp. 556–557.
- ^ Brown & MacDonald 1977, p. xix.
- ^ Smyth 1945, p. vii.
- ^ Wellerstein 2012c.
- ^ Groves 1945, p. v.
- ^ Jones 1985, p. 557.
- ^ a b Smyth 1976, pp. 177–178.
- ^ Smyth 1976, p. 182.
- ^ a b c Jones 1985, p. 558.
- ^ a b c Groves 1962, p. 349.
- ^ Smyth 1976, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Jones 1985, pp. 558–559.
- ^ Wellerstein 2012b.
- ^ a b Jones 1985, p. 560.
- ^ a b Groves 1962, p. 350.
- ^ a b c d Jones 1985, pp. 560–561.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 27–28, 351.
- ^ Groves 1962, p. 351.
- ^ a b Smyth 1976, pp. 183–185.
- ^ Wellerstein 2012a.
- ^ Smith 1976, pp. 191–192.
- ^ Smyth 1976, pp. 187–188, 192–194.
- ^ a b Smith 1976, pp. 195–196.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 351–352.
- ^ Rhodes 1995, pp. 215–216.
- ^ a b Coleman 1976, p. 208.
- ^ Smith 1976, p. 199.
- ^ Coleman 1976, pp. 208–211.
- ^ Smith 1976, pp. 196–197.
- ^ Smith 1976, p. 198.
- ^ Brown & MacDonald 1977, pp. xvii–xxi.
- ^ Schwartz 2008, pp. iii–iv.
- ^ a b Agar 2012, p. 292.
- ^ a b Crease 2009, p. 127.
- ^ Groves 1962, p. 352.
- ^ Holloway 1994, pp. 172–173.
- ^ a b Holloway 1994, p. 173.
- ^ Rhodes 1995, p. 222.
- ^ Holloway 1994, pp. 178–180, 183, 184, 187–188.
- ^ Rhodes 1995, pp. 215–217.
- ^ Wellerstein, Alex. "Solzhenitsyn and the Smyth Report". Restricted Data. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
- ^ Letter from Arnold Kramish to H. A. Fidler, September 1948
- ^ Bundy 1988, p. 134.
- ^ Bundy 1988, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Rhodes 1995, p. 310.
- ^ Hewlett & Holl 1989, p. 14.
References
- Agar, Jon (2012). Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. OCLC 437299666.
- OCLC 4433564013.
- ISBN 0-394-52278-8.
- Coleman, Earle E. (Spring 1976). "The "Smyth Report": A Descriptive Checklist" (PDF). The Princeton University Library Chronicle. 37 (3). Princeton University Press: 204–218. JSTOR 26404013. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 4, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
- Compton, Arthur (1956). Atomic Quest. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 173307.
- OCLC 317746066.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-1722-9.
- OCLC 537684.
- ISBN 0-520-06018-0.
- Holloway, David (1994). Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06056-4.
- Jones, Vincent (1985). Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb (PDF). Washington, DC: United States Army Center of Military History. OCLC 10913875. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 7, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
- OCLC 32509950.
- Schwartz, Rebecca (2008). The Making of the History of the Atomic Bomb: Henry DeWolf Smyth and the Historiography of the Manhattan Project (Ph.D.). Princeton University.
- Smith, Datus C. (Spring 1976). "The Publishing History of the "Smyth Report"" (PDF). The Princeton University Library Chronicle. 37 (3). Princeton University Press: 191–203. JSTOR 26404012. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 4, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-1722-9.
- JSTOR 26404011. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 4, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
- Wellerstein, Alex (August 17, 2012a). "The End of the Nuclear Age". Nuclear Secrecy. Archived from the original on March 24, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
- Wellerstein, Alex (August 17, 2012b). "Letter, Smyth to Oppenheimer, April 6, 1945" (PDF). Nuclear Secrecy. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 23, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
- Wellerstein, Alex (August 15, 2012c). "Los Alamos and the Smyth Report". Nuclear Secrecy. Retrieved December 3, 2014.