STAN FREBERG HERE...Before the Bomb...
Stan Freberg here. As we continually celebrate the end of World War II, much has been written about the dropping of the first two atomic bombs. I'm not gonna get into the debate about whether or not they should have been dropped, not in a two-minute commentary. But it's interesting, looking back, to see what experts said about atomic energy leading up to that. After this. [:60 SPOT BREAK]
Freberg here. Approximately 50 years after the fact, we keep discussing the atom bomb; television specials, books, a controversial Smithsonian exhibit. The bombs dropped in August of 1945 devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and ended World War II in the Pacific.
But back in 1945, while the bomb was being prepared to be dropped, here's what Admiral William Leahey told President Roosevelt: "This is the biggest fool thing we've ever done! The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert on explosives!" Thanks very much, Admiral.
And as for the splitting of the atom in the first place, which brought about atomic energy, here's what Albert Einstein said in 1932: "There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable." Hmm.
A year later, the atom was split at Cambridge, and Einstein began to change his mind. Finally, he was actually very helpful in explaining to F.D.R. in a letter that an atomic bomb could be built, and thus we entered the atomic age.
Maybe Einstein shoulda kept his thoughts to himself. If he'd never written that letter to Roosevelt, the bomb most likely would never have been built. Ah, well, such is life.
Stan Freberg here.
Copyright (C)1996, Stan Freberg/Freberg, Ltd. (but not very) Distributed by Dick Brescia Associates and Radio Spirits, Inc.