Now showing
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age (1986-02-25)
About this film
Gen. James Gavin was the Army's chief of research and development in the 1950s. In this interview, he discusses in depth the often parochial thinking and motivations that underlay decisions by the uniformed services and the Pentagon regarding the development of nuclear weapons. Beginning with the Korean War, he recounts discussions with several nuclear scientists being escorted around the theater over the need to build tactical nuclear weapons to aid on the battlefield. (The plans went nowhere, he says.) He relates a second-hand anecdote, which he is unable to substantiate, about Robert Oppenheimer discussing such options, and later getting into serious political trouble for them. He also recalls personally memorable meetings with Gen. MacArthur. In the mid-1950s Gen. Gavin publicly informed a congressional committee that the use of nuclear arms in a major conflict in Europe would result in several hundred million casualties, a remark that he notes created enormous concern in Western Europe and "exposed the fallacy of what a great nuclear war would do for us. It wouldn't do anything for us but kill us all." Despite this, he says, orders came down from the Pentagon leadership to con…
Directors & creators
WGBH
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age, Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969, Nuclear weapons -- Testing, Norstad, Lauris, 1907-1988, nuclear weapons, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Korean War, 1950-1953, United States, Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967, Jupiter missile, Thor (Missile), United States. Department of Defense. Weapons Systems Evaluation Group, Von Braun, Wernher, 1912-1977, Chiang, Kai-shek, 1887-1975, MacArthur, Douglas, 1880-1964
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