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- [00:01]
Podcast Host
Welcome to Atomic hobo. To get ad free listening plus bonus episodes, visit patreon.com Atomichobo
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Podcast Host
AI
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ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
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Knox
Do you like being educated on things that entertain but don't matter? Well, then you need to be listening to the Podcast with Knox and Jamie. Every Wednesday we put together an episode dedicated to delightful idiocy to give your brain a break from all the serious and important stu.
- [01:03]
Jamie
Whether we're deep diving a classic movie, dissecting the true meanings behind the newest slang, or dunking on our own listeners for their bad takes or cringy stories, we always approach our topics with humor and just a little bit of side eye. And we end every episode with recommendations on all the best new movies, books, TV shows or music.
- [01:19]
Knox
To find out more, just search up the Podcast with Knox and Jamie. Wherever you listen to podcasts and prepare to make Wednesday your new favorite day of the week.
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Podcast Host
Let's start a new series here on presidential authority to launch nuclear weapons. This first episode will be devoted to Harry Truman, who was of course the first president and so far, and hopefully it will remain that way, the only president to have authorised nuclear use in war. And the funny thing is that Truman didn't even know about the Manhattan Project until he became president in April 45. That happened, of course, on the sudden death of FDR. And his boss hadn't thought it necessary to inform him. Which fits in with the huge wartime secrecy of the project, but also the notion that the Vice President is just a spare guy hanging around in case the President dies or is incapacitated. So yes, it's funny to think that the man who authorised the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn't even know the atomic bomb existed until a few short months before. Beforehand. Talk about hitting the ground running. It was Harry Truman's decision. That's how the story goes. He decided. He gave the word, the first, the only man in history to do so. But the truth is more prosaic than that. No, that little guy didn't take the oath of office, get instantly hit with the stunning news about the Manhattan Project, and then boldly and bravely make the momentous decision to nuke two cities, a decision which might have crushed a lesser man. No, the truth is far more mundane. The reality is that the major decisions had already been made under fdr and Truman was just nodding them through. General Groves summed this up best when he said later that Truman roll had been one of non interference. In other words, the decisions have been made. You're the President now, so would you be so good as to rubber stamp what has already been decided by people who've been agonizing over this for a hell of a long time? No one expected you, Truman, to be here at this moment, but here you are. The least you can do is not get in the way. Of course, that sounds a bit insulting to Harry Truman, who, like it or not, General Groves and all your military buddies, was now the President. And Truman does stress in his memoirs that the decision to use the atomic bomb was indeed his. But if we look closely at his wording, we see that Truman wrote the final decision of where and when to use the atomic bomb was up to me, Let there be no mistake about it. When and where to use it was Truman's decision. Where and when, but not whether to use it. The Federation of American Scientists published a detailed report on nuclear launch authority called all the King's Weapons. And they drew attention to this because it implies that that the decision on whether to use it, as we said earlier, had already been made when Truman came along. It had been made under FDR in a period where Truman, as the mere Vice President, was left completely in the dark about what was being assembled out in the desert. And so when he Took office, All he was required to do was approve a decision already made. And so the report argues, it was this which spurred Truman on to make changes post war. Never again would a president be sidelined in this manner on nuclear weapons. After Nagasaki, General Groves informed general Marshall that they would soon have a third atomic bomb ready for use. But Marshall slapped him down, saying that there was no way this third nuke was to be used without the president's express authority. If Groves had made Truman seem small, here was Truman fighting back. And so we can trace the notion of presidential sole authority, which persists to this day, back to this period, to the perception that the military might have been a bit gung ho with this new bomb back in 45 and needed to be reined in by Truman by civilian authority. This shows that Truman, to his credit, appreciated this new atomic bomb was not just a weapon like any other. This was something which the military could not use without his personal approval. And after the war, Truman moved fast to remove the atomic bombs from the military's midst completely. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, what about a president scorned? Truman went all out to take the decision to use the nuclear bomb away from the military and then to take the physical objects themselves away from them. You soldiers don't get to decide on its use. Indeed, you don't even get custody of the thing. How do you like that? Do not mess with little Harry Truman after the war. Then, in 1946, the Atomic Energy act, often called the mcmahon act and despised by post war British prime ministers, as we've discussed a lot on this podcast, was brought into law in America. It moved everything atomic under civilian control. Atomic energy and atomic weapons. And it would all be organized and managed by the newly created Atomic Energy commission, a civilian commission. So the act cemented the fact that civilians were now in control of the nukes. And Section 6 of the act made it clear, in case General Groves hadn't been paying attention, that sole authority for authorizing the use of a nuke lay with the president. So it was made very clear in the atomic energy act of 46. But the concept of sole authority was tested somewhat during the Berlin crisis. Two years later, with things getting very tense, the defence secretary pressed for Truman to release into military custody some nuclear weapons, just in case. Well, Truman immediately quashed that idea, famously saying he would not have some dashing lieutenant colonel decide when would be the proper time to drop one. He went on to say very wisely, you have got to understand that this isn't a military weapon. It's used to wipe out women and children and unarmed people and not for military uses. So we've got to treat this thing differently from rifles and cannon and ordinary things like that. This is no time to be juggling an atomic bomb about. So I think we can detect a bit of disdain for how the military might be treating the nuclear bomb in a kind of cavalier fashion, or at least Truman feared they might because he's talking of dashing lieutenant colonels juggling an atomic bomb. So to quote from the report, all the King's weapons presidential sole authority was thus born as a means of preventing unnecessary nuclear use and founded on the justification that the uniquely destructive power of nuclear weapons required that they be under civilian control. So this thing is too important for dashing lieutenant colonels or trigger happy generals. It has to be under the control of sombre, sensible civilians in suits. As we will see as we proceed through the precedents in this series, the justification for sole presidential authority changed over the years. In later years, when we had a nuclear armed Soviet Union and ICBMs, which could impact in minutes, sole authority was a way to ensure you get a quick response from the President. Only one man needs to say yes or no. There are no committees and discussions and consultations. It may just be one guy awoken at 3am giving the decision in his pajamas. But we'll come to that. For now, under Truman, America has the luxury of time if they decide to use another nuke. They have a monopoly on the nuclear bomb at this point. And of course, the ICBM has not been invented, so there's no need for decisions to be made in minutes. Speed is not a factor. And so the reason in Truman's day for sole presidential authority was to keep the weapon out of the hands of the military, who might be a bit trigger happy. Let's not have, as Truman said, some dashing lieutenant colonel making the decision. It will be for the President. It will be crucially, a decision made by a civilian, a democratically elected civilian. So that all seems very plain and straightforward, doesn't it? The President decides it'll be him and him alone, end of story. And so it was until the Korean War started. But first, let's have a quick ad break.
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Acast Announcer
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- [13:07]
Knox
Do you like being educated on things that entertain but don't matter? Well, then you need to be listening to the podcast with Knox and Jamie. Every Wednesday we put together an episode dedicated to delightful idiocy to give your brain a break from all the serious and important stuff.
- [13:20]
Jamie
Whether we're deep diving a classic movie, dissecting the true meanings behind the newest slang, or dunking on our own listeners for their bad takes or cringy stories, we always approach our topics with humor and just a little bit of side eye. And we end every episode with recommendations on all the best new movies, books, TV shows or music.
- [13:36]
Knox
To find out more, just search up the podcast with Knox and Jamie Wherever you listen to podcasts and prepare to make Wednesday your new favorite day of the week.
- [13:46]
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Acast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcast everywhere acast.com With Vrbo's last
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- [14:12]
Podcast Host
so how did the Korean War upset the nice and simple concept of presidential Seoul authority? Well, you can blame Britain, for a start. We've often talked on this podcast of how aggrieved Britain was to be cut off from nuclear cooperation with the Americans after the war, cut off by the hated McMahon act, the same act which also, as we saw earlier, set down in writing that it's the President and the President only who can authorise nuclear use. Well, Britain was always pestering and badgering the Americans on this let's be nuclear partners again, let's cooperate again. And harking back to Churchill's wartime agreement with fdr, you promised to consult us before ever using the atomic bomb, the bomb that we helped create. But hang on, if the Americans were to honour the wartime pledge to consult with the British before using it again, how would that fit into the concept of presidential sole authority? Could the President be said to have that sole power and freedom to make this awesome decision if he had to consult with someone else, and not even a fellow American, but a foreign power? Unthinkable. But Korea forced some changes in thinking. The Korean War started, of course, in 1950, and the US Air Force was using British bases for some of its bombers, as it had been since 1948. B29 bombers, to be specific. Yes, the same type of bomber which had nuked Japan. And so this again raised the uncomfortable issue of consultation. Because how can it be fair that the Americans, now that we are in an act of war, could in theory launch an atomic attack from a British base when Britain has no say in it attlee had questioned Truman on this, wanting something firm and definite in writing that the Americans would not do so, not launch an atomic attack from Britain without British permission, but he would not commit anything to paper. And then when Churchill returned to power, he tried again, tried again to pin the Americans down on this, but they were still evasive. They did not want their president's freedom to use nukes on his sole authority to be curtailed. When Churchill Met Truman in January 1952, he rung from him a guarantee that no atomic attack would be launched from a British base without the prior consent of the British government. Okay, well, that's good, isn't it? But how watertight was that agreement? Not very. It said the use of these bases in an emergency would be a matter for joint decision by his majesty's government and the United States government in the light of circumstances prevailing at the time. As we've said on this podcast before, that phrase gives the Americans a lot of leeway in the light of circumstances prevailing at the time. Could that be twisted to mean, yeah, we nuked the commies, nuked them into dust, and yeah, we did it from your bases, so they'd probably be a bit upset with you, but we couldn't seek your consent due to circumstances prevailing at the time, by which we mean the prime minister was in the bathroom when we called. So Korea and the presence of the B29s in Britain forced the issue. But the best that we could get from the Americans was, yes, it will be a matter of joint decision depending on circumstances. That is a get out clause if ever I heard one. So we can see that the Americans under Truman were very keen to guard and defend the concept of presidential sole authority. And as we've seen, this was done in order to keep the bomb out of the hands of potentially trigger happy generals, or, as Truman painted it, dashing lieutenant colonels. If the president had to guard the bomb from gung ho military use, then that meant he also had to guard his sole authority against the involvement of the British government, even if, in theory, that meant giving him the means to launch a nuclear attack from British soil without British permission. And think how the popular perception of sole authority has changed these days. Some may argue it is illogical and, yes, even frightening that one man, one man, has that awesome power, and in theory, no one can stop him from using it. But in Truman's day, sole authority seemed like a logical and calm position as it wrested the bomb from the hands of the generals and gave it to the president, who was sombre and sensible and who'd made it abundantly clear that he hopes never to have to use it. So yes, you could argue that sole authority is fine as long as your president is and remains a calm and rational and intelligent man. And the historian Alex Wellistein in his book A Most Awful Responsibility says that that is your protection against improper use of the bomb. Elect a rational president. And what's the protection against an irrational president? Well, it's don't elect one in the first place. So we've established that Truman got the bomb under civilian control and it was clear that only he could authorize its use. But do you imagine the military were happy with that? No way. Turning back to Alex Wellerstein's book, the Most Awful Responsibility, he shows us that the military, I suppose, just as the post war British governments did, kept nagging about the bomb. The main question for them in the Truman era was custody. Who gets to hold possession of the bomb? We're not talking for now about the authority to use it, just custody of the thing. The military, of course, thought it should be them because it's a bomb, for crying out loud. But Truman, as we know, said that we can't think of this as a weapon like any other. This is not just an ordinary bomb to be lumped in with all the others. But the military would not pipe down on this, and they used the outbreak of the Korean War to bolster their arguments. We want the bomb. We want the bomb. So a compromise was reached. They could have custody of the bomb, sure, but not its nuclear component. By this stage, the Americans were using Mark 4 bombs which could be assembled without its nuclear core. You popped that bit in just before you planned to detonate the thing. So sure, said Truman, have the mark IV bombs and you can practice with them and train with them to your heart's content, but you will not get the nuclear components. So I suppose they were getting what you might think of as toothless or defanged atomic bombs. They were bombs which held conventional explosives, sure, but they couldn't, without the nuclear component, cause a nuclear explosion. The nuclear components remained held by the civilian Atomic Energy Commission, and they would only be transferred if and when Truman, with his sole presidential authority, agreed that that should happen. So as of 1950, the non nuclears, as they were called, were loaned out to the military for training exercises. So it's atomic bombs without the nuclear component, the non nuclears. And as Alex Wellenstein puts it, thus began what would become an extremely slippery slope. Yes, it seems that once the military had a bunch of the non nuclears in their possession. They went full Oliver Twist and asked for more more. And next week we will see what happened when the military began demanding more I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Let me thank my newest patrons, Kristin Palmeiro, Ben Johnson, Dr. Andrew Ambrose, Mackey Peyton Dyke and Trickle Verity. If you want to join us on Patreon and get access to bonus episodes and ad free listening, take a look@patreon.com Atomichobo.
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Acast powers the World's Best Podcasts Here's a show that we recommend.
- [24:03]
Knox
Do you like being educated on things that entertain but don't matter? Well then you need to be listening to the Podcast with Knox and Jamie. Every Wednesday we put together an episode dedicated to delightful idiocy to give your brain a break from all the serious and important stuff.
- [24:15]
Jamie
Whether we're deep diving a classic movie, dissecting the true meanings behind the newest slang, or dunking on our own listeners for their bad takes or cringy stories, we always approach our topics with humor and just a little bit of side eye. And we end every episode with recommendations on all the best new movies but TV shows or music.
- [24:31]
Knox
To find out more, just search up the Podcast with Knox and Jamie wherever you listen to podcasts and prepare to make Wednesday your new favorite day of the week.
- [24:42]
Acast Announcer
ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcast everywhere.
- [24:47]
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