Art or article? The need for and nature of the British hydrogen bomb, 1954–58
This article examines the considerations which underpinned the British government's decision to produce hydrogen bombs. It is argued that the British hydrogen bomb programme was shaped by a number of factors: time constraints, the vagaries of the Anglo‐American relations, a desire to keep a check on the ambitions of both the US and USSR, and the need to maintain ‘great power’ status.
The Khariton version
Unlike the United States, the Soviet Union did not keep an historical record of the Soviet atomic project. Trying to create an accurate account of the program from existing fragmentary knowledge is a difficult task. Recently, some members of the secret service may have exaggerated the role the intelligence community played in the development of Soviet nuclear weapons. Given here are the viewpoints of Yuli Khariton and Yuri Smirnov, who refute the claim that Soviet intelligence, and not Soviet physicists, were responsible for the first Russian bomb. The authors present their personal historical account of the Soviet nuclear program. 37 refs.
The Colours and Dresses of Racism in America
The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.