THREE TWO ONE ZERO

the empty chair at the United Nations the Russian veto the Gromyko walk out in a world of ideas we fight a war of ideas never before has the world's most powerful monopolies been offered by its owner one nation to all nations to all men we are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead that is our business the search of science for absolute weapon as weak fruition in this country Bernard Baruch proposes an international authority to control inspect and license all Tomic activities no bombs in the arsenal no veto in the UN punishment for offenders the Russians reject the American idea and the American answer to communist intransigence at the council table communist obstruction of broad communist agitation throughout the world is a helping hand for the oppressed to the ever-changing conditions the world we apply the never changing conditions of freedom clothing for the naked supplies for those in need [Music] and there are those who are forced to ask for more than butter [Music] - then we give guns to them we give our lives [Music] as we must help others secure their freedom so we must secure our own security secrecy become the keywords of the mid 20th century whatever happens we have the secret of the bomb and we mean to keep it secret so check everybody investigate screen guard question check again and recheck security all by itself becomes a major industry consuming unlimited manpower consuming millions of dollars one out of every four employees of the Atomic Energy Commission one dollar out of every twenty it spends goes to the maintenance of security what are we trying to hide not even this can be suggested according to the security regulations on all matters of security at all atomic energy installations the Atomic Energy Commission retains absolute and final authority [Music] restricted confidential secret ultra secret top-secret cosmic secret under lock and key core the documents to many say some never too many say others but he who admits the possession of a secret has already half revealed it what Moscow spies have contributed to Russia's scientific progress is accurately known only to Russia herself at best they have advanced the Russian timetable inside the Soviet Union a vast well trained dedicated scientific community strives to keep pace with the west the physicist and the mathematician of privileged citizens whose work has left free of ideological control these are precisely the fits most vital to atomic research each year the universities graduate 100,000 young technicians and scientists a figure comparable to that of the United States [Music] Europe's first cyclotron was built in 1937 at Moscow's radium Institute in 1939 when Hahn and Strassman were making their epic experiment in Berlin two Russian scientists Clara and Petra Jacque also discovered the spontaneous fission of uranium with or without spies it was certain that sooner or later the Russians would learn how to make an atom bomb well the greatest security risk is nature herself and as Einstein has said what nature tells one group of men she will tell in time to any other [Music] September 1949 the Atomic Age takes another fateful turn intelligence of all kinds true and false unreal and real reaches the United States dr. Vannevar Bush and his committee of experts weigh the reports and reach a conclusion well what do you think there's no doubt about it they've got it the evidence is unmistakable all the reports tally anyone disagree very well then we have the report to the president but having reviewed all the evidence we have come to the conclusion that an atomic explosion has taken place Russia has the bomb America has lost the monopoly President Truman wrestles with a shattering problem as his countrymen celebrate a holiday dedicated to peace on earth goodwill toward men the president Ponder's his course of action January 1950 he issues a statement to the press it is part of my responsibility as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor accordingly I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its work on all forms of atomic weapons including the so-called hydrogen or super bomb America hears she mobilizes her resources her brains her skill her manpower to meet the new challenge America ants and in the Pacific other towers ground zero again as the world seeds with war both hot and cold the United States counters the Russian threat of world revolution many times more serious now by strengthening her alliances abroad and herself at home a whole family of new atomic weapons is perfected and the greatest of these is the h-bomb the hydrogen bomb the super bomb [Music] [Music] at Hiroshima it was an a-bomb explosion equal to 20,000 tons of TNT at anyway top it will be an h-bomb explosion equal to 5 million tons of TNT and it takes a bombs to trigger H bombs at many tests have many places ships and material sailors and soldiers pilots and divers Admirals and Generals scientists and technicians doctors and chemists astronomers and oceanographers blast experts and radiation teams and of course the bombs three [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics powerful industrialized determined to match the West events have proved where American engineers and scientists leave the Russians follow since 1917 Russian industry has grown from almost nothing to formidable proportions generations of slave labor had been sacrificed to this end the means are of no consequence the end is all-important and on this indispensable foundation to national power the Russians lose no time in trying to checkmate the West with a thermonuclear explosion of their own August 1953 Stalin's successor Georgy Malenkov announces to the Supreme Soviet the government deems it necessary to report that the United States has no monopoly in the production of the hydrogen bomb but bombs are useless without the means to deliver them Russia builds those - how many bombs do the Russians have the exact number is not known does not matter they have enough they've delivered on target to inflict incredible damage on the United States on the west and in the United States defense against aggression on the airfields of North America the intercontinental bombers are constantly fueled constantly tuned constantly ready 24 hours a day day in day out the planes and their crews are always on the alert their targets picked their courses long since set somebody might blow the whistle tomorrow morning and picked crews have their gear packed for takeoff at any hour any time should zero come daily the training flights flights of 40 hours at a stretch routine flights that equal the distance from Texas to Moscow and back if the russians go to war the airmen tell one another they won't have any country to come back to what the Russian hem until one another is not hard to guess nor is this the whole story both the Communists in the free world are perfecting intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying atomic warheads traveling without human control these missiles ripped through the stratosphere and land on their targets without warning against them there is no known defense a time of confusion and contradiction the ludicrous in the sand [Music] man can die yes but he can live man can be ignorant yes but he can be wise man can be fearful yes but he can have hope and it is only what man fears he tries to forget all over the world it is the same escape escaped from tyranny escape from freedom escape from oneself there are those who hear only the lonely cry of the lonely sex there are those who see only absolute nothingness of atomic power there are many who prefer to call the atomic age the age of anxiety [Music] some say there is no place to hide but little children cannot know what this means the truth is unpleasant the truth is ugly the truth is horrible but the world remembers the truth remembers Hiroshima [Music] four naked wretches where so where you are that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm how should your house muss heads and unfed sides your looped and windowed raggedness defendant from seasons such as these [Music] I hold the unconquerable belief that science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war that nations will come together not to destroy but to construct and that the future belongs to those who accomplish most for Humanity Louis Pasteur's words do not fall on deaf ears there are those throughout the land who already are putting the atom to work for the greater good of humanity radioactive cobalt machines operating in our hospitals are symbolic of the atom revolving knot in the vortex of annihilation but in the cycle of life it turns for all mankind atomic energy can be the supreme gift of science to man potentially there is sufficient power for all making possible enough of everything to free man as he has never been free before and not alone as the United States in the pursuit of this dream Britain France and Canada Norway in the Netherlands Belgium Sweden and Denmark Brazil and Australia Italy Switzerland and India all have atomic energy programs whose only purpose is human betterment this is not so wild a dream the reality is here now in Idaho the first usable electric power in history is being generated by atomic energy energy produced by precisely the same fissionable material hidden in the bombs it guards the freedom of the West today it embraces hope for the world tomorrow [Music] the signal light the reactor is an operation the enriched uranium core the natural uranium blanket the sodium-potassium coolant the heat exchange of the steam loop and the turbo generator it is all here now it is working for peace the world is waiting three two one let there be light and there is light a new light has come into our world a light released from the dark unknown depths of nature to penetrate the dark unknown depths of man a light to a human the nobility of man at one with the universe the new age may yet make both the ancient prophecy of Isaiah they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore this is the future that beckons if man has the wisdom and reason to seek his high destiny a future where none of the millions alive on earth today or any of the millions yet to come need say as a poet has said I a stranger and afraid in a world I never made why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people asked Abraham Lincoln is there any better or equal hope in the world the answer is none man is either dedicated to God and man or he is dedicated to the devil and to nothingness and as Lincoln knew it is only through the people we shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of them it is the people through their governments who must ultimately save whether the atom has come to bless mankind or to cursed mankind it is the people all the people in all lands and in all places who must come to know what atomic energy can and will do for good and for evil they alone and together each and Hall have the opportunity now right now choose happiness not our construction not destruction peace not oblivion the real problem does not rest in scientific mechanisms but rather at rests in the minds and hearts of men [Music] to the making of these fateful decisions the United States pledges before you and therefore before the world its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death but consecrated to his life three two one time counts on zero is here everything is here but whether it be nothing or everything depends on what course man steers across the great unexplored ocean of truth as it rolls through empty space in endless time [Music] [Applause] our earth is but a small star in the great universe yet of it we can make if we choose a planet unvexed by war untroubled by hunger or fear undivided by senseless distinctions of race color or fear grant us that courage and porcine to begin this task today with our children and our children's children maybe proud the name of man [Music]