The Oppenheimer Alternative

[Major Major]

Robert J. Sawyer's book The Oppenheimer Alternative will be released June 2. This is a link to an interview of him about the book:

Robert J. Sawyer interviewed by Mike Glyer about The Oppenheimer Alternative

By Mike Glyer: Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the top science fiction awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo (Hominids), the Nebula…

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There is one interesting passage in the interview:

Second, Leo Szilard was right: if you had to show the world you had such a bomb, either as a deterrent or to explain to the taxpayers what you’d spent two billion 1945 dollars on, all you needed to do was invite Japanese observers and journalists to a remote site, set off the bomb there, and let people see what it could do.

I recall that this alternative was discussed and that the consensus was that the High Command would have said to the observers, "That's very nice. Would you like a cup of tea?" or words to that effect; that such a demonstration would have at best no influence on them, and might well persuade them that the weapon was an unusable bluff.

Discuss.