America’s Cold War Experience
During World War II, Radiological warfare (RW) became a last resort for the United States if Germany was the first to create an atomic bomb. Follow the beginnings of RW with experimentation as a chemical weapon, tactical use of fallout, and other ways to weaponize energy, through to the disestablishment of America’s RW doctrine at the end of the Cold War.
A history of the United States’ experience with radiological weapons, from inception during the Second World War through the Cold War. A taxonomy of Radiological Warfare (RW) is presented, defining RW as a fringe of other forms of warfare. The history details an evolution from RW as a form of chemical warfare into an aspect of nuclear warfare. As a type of chemical weapon for area denial, there were successful field experiments and logistical challenges to adoption. As a tactic of nuclear warfare, the base surge could be exploited for RW area denial. The RW effect was a bonus with the cratering for atomic barriers.
The use of fallout for RW was more problematic, distinguishing between reliable RW effect and undesirable consequences. Salting and dirty strategic nuclear weapons were explored, with the latter being adopted for war planning which ignored the contribution of fallout. The complexities of adopting tactical nuclear weapons resulted in a de facto RW doctrine, which led to the emphasis on initial radiation in upgrading weapon systems, viz., Enhanced Radiation (ER) weapons. Public opposition to the neutron bomb prevented the deployment of ER weapons, and the end of the Cold War disestablished America’s RW doctrine.
Military historian and consultant to government, scholars, publishers, and television documentarians.
My focus is on the history of chemical biological weapons technology development and doctrine. I’m currently working on a historical study of American Cold War biological weapons relating to airpower doctrine and nuclear weapons.
Over 30 years focused on cross-domain study on CBRN technology, history, and doctrine.
The notional death ray in science fiction writings emerged after the discoveries and inventions of Marie Curie, Wilhelm Röntgen, Guglielmo Marconi, and Nikola Tesla. It was a fantasy of radiating energy to vanquish an enemy. This fictional antecedent heralded in Radiological Warfare (RW), a convergence of nuclear, chemical, and electronic warfare technology spheres using radiation to defeat enemy personnel or equipment.
Independently of the S-1 executive committee RW effort, in an April 1943 private meeting with Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi proposed a scheme to use pile byproducts to poison the German food supply. It was at a time when there were doubts if a fast neutron chain reaction for an atomic bomb was solvable. Believing Germany was a year or more ahead of the manhattan project, the possibility of German RW as an alternative to an atomic bomb required some means of retaliation.
In anticipation of possible German RW or nuclear attack, in 1943 the manhattan project had contracted Victoreen Instrument Company to supply 24 RADIAC meters. Half were for low-level detection of 0 to 19 R/day and the other half for high-level detection of 0 to 200 R/day. The manhattan project distributed these with instructions to their offices in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, and to specially formed response teams at Met Lab. The militarized version of the Victoreen Model 247 was the Model 247A (2.5 to 2,500 mR/hr) and the Model 247A Special (25 to 25,000 mR/hr), with the higher-level unit distinguished by a red dial mount.
In a 26 February 1950 University of Chicago Roundtable radio broadcast, Leo Szilard conjectured the idea of salting a thermonuclear bomb with Cobalt-59 to increase the radiological effect. He termed it a “doomsday device” as neutrons from the burst would convert the Cobalt to highly radioactive 60Co. Having a half-life of 5.27 years, the 60Co was posited to exterminate humanity through global fallout.125 Albert Einstein and Harrison Brown had made similar statements.
The notional radiological doomsday device held the public imagination through the Cold War. Before 1950, science fiction works depicted doomsday from a force of nature; afterwards, it was by RW, particularly in association with thermonuclear weapons. After Nevil Shute’s novel, Stanley Kramer filmed On The Beach (1959) depicting extinction from global fallout. Similar was done in Ranald MacDougall’s motion picture The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959). A doomsday device played a central role in Stanley Kubrick’s movie Dr. Strangelove (1964). Ted Post ended his movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes: The Devine Bomb (1970) with a fictional Alpha-Omega Cobalt bomb, conceived as the ultimate deterrent.
The radiological facilities eventually included supporting shops and laboratories for the RW program, including a hot lab for handling the highly radioactive materials. The hot lab was a long and narrow building with a 15-ton capacity gantry crane and standard gage rail system for handling heavy items over a large concrete pad. Along the length of the hot lab was a four-foot wide concrete wall for permanent shielding, and 800-tons of lead bricks for temporary shielding. There was also a special hot cell with video cameras and mechanical arms for precision work on munition components rated for up to 0.3 MCi of activity.
The Signal Corps retained most radiation detection items, excepting those using chemical or ion-exchange methods of detection. The CmlC introduced a personal radiation dosimeter circa 1954 using a chemical reaction, which was quickly replaced by an ionexchange dosimeter pen. These dosimeters were easy to use and gave real-time radiation dose information to soldiers in the field.