
Category: Some Red Hot Gospel there!
The 1950’s is incredibly telling of the quality, caliber and sanity of any American today. You either view it as an ideal, a goal, a target to shoot for, or you loathe it, detest it, hate it, and view it as the epitome of evil. The first group of people are true Americans. They love the nuclear family, booming economic growth, progress, fashion, beauty, low crime, excellence, achievement and all that is classically American.
The later are nothing more than parasitic socialists who fear the 1950’s more than anything else because it is the single largest, brightest, and blinding bit of empirical evidence that contradicts their socialist religion. If you point out the virtues of 1950’s America they rush to tell you it’s racist, while tripping over themselves to nervously-laugh at the presupposed “barbaric sexism” of the 50’s.
You can try to reason with them and point out you’re talking more the familial stability, economic growth, low unemployment, fashion, etc., and would do away with the bigotry of the times.
But they will have none of it because if they concede that the 50’s were better times in general, then that would mean they were wrong about their socialist ideology and can no longer collect their government checks. Alas, they will always cower and hypocritically hide behind the 50’s being racist and “You just want women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” (you ignorant neanderthal you) because otherwise they’d have to get real jobs.
Sadly, with a high enough percentage of the population voting for socialism, not to mention an increasing percentage of the population preferring to celebrate inferiority over excellence, we as a country cannot return to the “glory days” of the 1950’s.
Millennials are not capable of living on their own at 18. Women prefer to outsource kids to day care instead of raise them. Men have been replaced with government checks. And what men are present in their nuclear families are usually Soy Boy jokes which cannot compare to a strong, but fair 1950’s Ward Cleaver.
Without the based, anchored, and galvanized WWII generation, the generations of Americans that remain are simply too inferior and lazy to achieve what Americans did in the 1950’s. And so you assume we can never return to those halcyon days of yore and are condemned to Enjoy the Decline.
However, I have a bit of good news for you, and it is one of those rare bits of good news indeed. For while “we” as a country can’t and never will return to the 1950’s, YOU as an individual can. And there’s nobody who can stop you.
The main reason anybody can return to the 1950’s at any time is because while on a national or macro level the US may be turning into a childish, socialist shithole, on the local or micro level the average American still holds considerable sway and control over their immediate and local environment.
You don’t have to live in California where the insane people put cancer warnings on coffee. You don’t have to live in Seattle where the city council obviously loves parasites more than the producers.
You can simply choose to live in towns that aren’t socialist, have low crime, low traffic and don’t vote to tax their citizens all the time. But returning to the 50’s goes well beyond simply picking the right municipality to live in.
It boils down to individual life-style decisions that are even more personal, more “micro” and will more directly affect the quality of life you live. And if you make the right decisions, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy a 1950’s life replete with 2020’s technology and conveniences.
Location, Location, Location
The first and most important step in attaining a 1950’s lifestyle is refusing to live where liberals and leftists are. Leftists and liberals are simply antithetical to a 1950’s lifestyle and mindset.
This obviously eliminates entire states like California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, but also eliminates nearly every major city in the United States. Being away from major metro areas and America’s centers of commerce may put a crimp on your career opportunities, but less so than you might think.
The suburbs exist for a reason – hard working people who want safe communities, good schools, low taxes, and low crime, also want to be reasonably close to these hubs of commerce for their careers.
This is possible if you’re willing to commute or simply take the bus. Furthermore, advances in internet technology has made an increasing number of jobs location independent.
This allows you to move yourself (and your family) to smaller, even safer, even lower-taxed hamlets where you can still do our job remotely, occasionally dropping in on the city for whatever culture or entertainment you may want to take in.
These small towns can offer a 1950’s “Andy Griffith Mayberry” lifestyle for you and your family…assuming you’re done living the “Sex and the City” or “Friends” lifestyle that you were sold on TV.
Career Choices
Closely related to where you live and work is your career. To be blunt, if you want to return to the 1950’s that means a one income household.
One person is going to go out and make the money, the other is going to keep the home and raise any would-be children. This means you have to major in the right thing and today 2/3rds of American students major in worthless, unemployable slop.
So it is vital you choose the right profession be it the trades, joining the military, majoring in engineering or becoming a dentist.
If you don’t, you condemn yourself to a life of the typical Millennial; constantly begging for work, pulling teeth to get a decent wage, crippled by student loans you’ll never pay back, living paycheck to paycheck…heck, living at home at 30.
The (evil racist) 1950’s American dream of homeownership will simply be out of your reach as you opted to major in an easy hobby rather than a rigorous, industrious and EMPLOYABLE profession. You can make it even easier on yourself if you choose a profession like computer programming or networking which will not only pay, but give you the added benefit of location independent employment.
The 1950’s Budget
In my book “Poor Richard’s Retirement” I was amazed how people in the 1950’s managed to raise full, nuclear families on incomes that are a third of today’s household income. When people say “it takes two incomes to raise a family today” what they really mean is…
“When you account for my student loans for my worthless masters degree in human development and my husband’s MBA, and the luxury SUV lease, and our McMansion mortgage, and the kids’ day care, and the pool boy and the lawn care and our annual vacations to Disney World, Mazatlan, and Italy and the designer clothes for all our children, we need two incomes to pay for everything.”
In short, people today replace people with stuff. In the 1950’s the parents actually raised a family and spent their money on people. Not things. They knew family was more important than materialism and consequently put it at the center of their lives.
This translated into budgets that were mere fractions of what people spend today, but even more shocking to modern Americans, families in the 50’s had money left over.
This frugality required living in homes that had 1/3rd the square footage of today’s modern homes, owning only one car, taking the bus, children sharing rooms, cutting coupons and budgeting, hemming and darning clothes, and not outsourcing your children to daycare which (ironically) usually costs more than what paltry income a wife brings in when she goes out and works whatever part-time non-profit job her liberal arts degree affords here.
Thankfully today’s housing technology allows you to buy more home for the same inflation-adjusted dollar and automotive technology allows you to afford more than one car.
But buying vanity in the form of BMW’s, McMansions, designer clothes, trips, and pointless masters degrees is what enslaves most people to their debts and prevents them from living a 1950’s, person-focused lifestyle.
If you simply buy what you need, spending less than you make, all the financial problems that plague modern debt-addicted Americans will go away and happier families will be the result.
Yes, You Will Raise Your Own Damn Children
I’ve always wondered why the majority of people in my generation even bother having children. They don’t raise them. They simply have them and then juggle them in between both of their careers, hobbies, vices, and daycare.
Half of my parental peer group took a page from the Book of Baby Boomers and end up getting divorced and so now the kids are raised in broken homes…optimistically assuming the mother and father were married in the first place.
So why did you even bother to have kids?
More important than location, more important than your career, more important than you yourself is the children you decided to bring into this world. I cannot logically deduce anything except that your children should be the most important thing in this world.
Ergo, I would presume if you had them you would like to actually spend time with them, certainly before they turn 18 and you don’t see them again.
So please, if the Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers taught us anything, it should be that you should raise your own damn kids.
Don’t outsource them to daycare. Don’t outsource them to pre-pre-pre K. Don’t put your career ahead of them. Actually spent time with them and raise them. You’d be surprised how well-raised children bring happiness into your life. You might even be shocked to find out they’re more rewarding than your masters degree.
Yes, You Will Remain a Nuclear Family
Appalled as I am watching friends have kids they simply don’t want, it enrages me when parents obviously decide they are more important than their children and get divorced (or “split up” because, why get married before having kids anyways, amirite?)
Not only does this wreak havoc upon the psychologies of any children you might have, single parent households are the most inefficient way to raise kids.
The sheer calories of energy I see divorced parents spend not only trying to time-share their children and maintain multiple homes, but battle and fight one another over pure selfishness, pettiness, and pride is argument enough that you should fake being married until your youngest is 18 no matter how much you hate each other.
It would be less painful, less costly, less time consuming and much better for all parties involved (including those kids you had – remember them?).
But there is a much more important argument to maintaining a nuclear family and one that is based in the selfless consideration of others in society – the quality of your children.
The consequences of divorced or broken homes is the scourge of ill-reared children that are then released into the real world. At best they might be slightly depressed, faking a mental illness like “social anxiety disorder” or whatever the new one is this week.
But at worst (and more typically) they are the cause of nearly all sociological problems. Poverty, drugs, crimes, STD’s, high taxes, mental illness, murder, lost economic production, deficits, future illegitimate children/single parent households, nearly EVERY major problem society faces today has its genesis in broken homes, single moms and dead beat dads.
Failing to maintain a nuclear family results in raising liabilities in the form of your dysfunctional children that you then send out into the real world where they proceed to wreak trillions of dollars worth in damage.
I’m going to assume that the love of your children is argument enough to guarantee your children will be raised under a nuclear family.
The peace, calm, serenity and love that comes from the resulting familial stability would also be a convincing fringe benefit to ensure this trait of 1950’s America. But if that’s not enough to convince you, perhaps the guilt that your failure to raise your children properly is guaranteed to cost society trillions will ensure you keep your family together.
Choose a Traditional 1950’s Man/Woman
Key to having a stable marriage and a nuclear family is choosing the right person as your spouse. And to be perfectly honest, the qualities and traits that make a good spouse have been bred out of Americans the past three generations.
This forced-political denial of the differences and thus complimentary natures of the sexes in today’s America is laughable and should be ignored if you wish to life a 1950’s lifestyle.
Millions of years of human evolution, billions of years of the evolution of life on our planet, and our environment has made it PHYSICALLY CLEAR there are indeed (and in general) two sexes. And not only are there two distinct sexes, there are some major differences. In the 1950’s these differences were used to help form a nearly-unstoppable duo in the form of a husband and wife with their own unique strengths and specialties.
With their strength, energy, resolve and mathematically inclined brains, men would work and make money. And not only work and make money, but innovate, create, and experiment resulting in dramatic increases in standards of living.
Women with their care, compassion, kindness and acute awareness of resource management would typically raise the children (don’t know if you noticed those things called “boobs” they have), maintain a home, support the husband, but also through budgeting and economic guile make the money the husband made go far as possible, increasing standards of living for all family members.
This isn’t to say that men couldn’t cook or women couldn’t be scientists, but in general these two roles took advantage of the division of labor, playing to each others’ strengths, while compensating for each others’ weaknesses.
Now that has all be abdicated in the pursuit of the political lie that men and women are not so much equal (which they are), but that they are interchangeable (which they certainly aren’t).
Regardless, the point is not one against the folly of feminism or socialist politics, but that if you do indeed want to live a 1950’s life you need to find a traditional masculine man for a husband and a traditional feminine woman for a wife.
Not only will this result in a more successful marriage, you have 2 million years of human evolution working for you which is better than the 50 years of delusional feminist slop theory that’s been peddled since 1968.
But what makes a traditional man or woman? Simple, you simply pursue traditional values.
A traditional man supports himself, doesn’t rely on a government check, works out, is physically fit, demands sex, and is going to demand that his wife stays in shape.
He is also fair and just, puts his family ahead of himself, will die for them if necessary, but in the end will inevitably insist he is the head of the household and is going to be the final arbiter of all decisions, not for tyrannical or dictatorial reasons, but simply because there can only be ONE leader and it is in the best interest of everybody to only have ONE leader.
A traditional woman also supports herself, learns a skill or trade, doesn’t rely on a government check, and also loves her family more than herself. However, she is also acutely aware of the sexual demands of men. She ensures she remains physically attractive for her husband knowing that is one of the most important things in his life.
Additionally, instead of questioning, nagging, contesting and arguing with her husband she supports him. She cares about him and wants to make his life easy as possible whether that’s through love and compassion, remaining the physically beautiful muse to inspire him, or simply permitting him the calm serenity and peace in life that comes without having a nagging harpy for wife.
In short, it is selflessness and loving your spouse more than yourself that makes for a stable and happy marriage. Today that has been bred out of us. We love ourselves, our careers, our educations, our soy, and our things more than we do our spouses.
But if you want a happy and successful 1950’s marriage you will revisit traditional values of excellence, selflessness, beauty, physique, and support. And I strongly suggest you do because you will be spending the majority of your time with your spouse which will make it the #1 determinant of your happiness.
Friends and Colleagues
Finally, it is not only your family and location that can ultimately provide you with a 1950’s life. It is the friends, colleagues and associates you surround yourself with.
This is somewhat accomplished in choosing smaller, conservative, traditional towns far removed from the country’s tallest buildings. But in addition to your family it is your friends and other non-familial (brotherly) loved ones that will also play a major role in the quality of the life you lead. And it is here there is one simple rule – no low-quality people in your life.
One might think “no leftists” in one’s life would be a rule to follow, but there are some good democrats out there who are good honest souls, simply misinformed or perhaps too optimistic about the reality of people and the economy.
Blue collar democrats, factory workers, union workers. These are honest men and women who can make great friends and add great value to your life. But when it comes to welfare recipients, SJW’s, activists, politicians, non-profit workers, professors, students, or people who think they’re entitled to a free ride, it’s very simple – ensure they are not a part of your life. Life is too short for parasites and ensuring none are around will go a long way in recreating a 1950’s lifestyle.
In general, the point is that whatever happens in Washington or your state capitol ultimately doesn’t matter because it is the people immediately around us that determines the majority of the quality of the life we live.
It may be annoying what the idiots of California vote to do to themselves. Or it may make you shake your head that Seattleittes really like punishing themselves.
And you can only sit and wonder at times why college students pay $100,000 to essentially destroy themselves. But you do not have to participate in their delusional worlds.
With today’s technology, old school frugality and wisdom, and simply seeking out traditional people with traditional values you can enjoy a 1950’s life very easily. And while the leftists and liberals mock and ridicule you for having a house paid off, a pretty wife/handsome husband, well-reared kids, as you “live in the sticks,” let them enjoy their traffic jams, their $7 mochas, the $125,000 in student loans, and their miserable anti-American lives. Life is just to short otherwise.
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Another, this man is one Hell of a stud!! William Frederick Harris
William Frederick Harris (March 6, 1918 – December 7, 1950) was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) lieutenant colonel during the Korean War. The son of USMC General Field Harris, he was a prisoner of war during World War II and a recipient of the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism during the breakout in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. He was last seen by American forces on December 7, 1950, was listed missing in action and is presumed to have been killed in action. Harris was featured in the book and film Unbroken.[1][2]
Biography
William Frederick Harris was born on March 6, 1918, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, to Field Harris (1895–1967) and Katherine Chinn-Harris (1899–1990).[1]
Harris graduated from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, in the class of 1939. He was in A Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines[3] and was captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942.
He escaped with Edgar Whitcomb, future governor of Indiana,[4] and on May 22, 1942, swam 8+1⁄2 hours across Manila Bay to Bataan, where he joined Filipino guerrillas fighting Japan just after the Battle of Bataan.[5] In the summer of 1942, Harris and two others left Whitcomb and attempted to sail to China in a motorboat, but the engine failed and the boat drifted for 29 days with little food or water. The monsoon blew them back to an island in the southern part of the Philippines where they split up and he joined another resistance group.[6] Harris headed towards Australia hoping to rejoin American forces he heard were fighting in Guadalcanal, but he was recaptured in June[7] or September 1943[8] by Japan on Morotai island, Indonesia, around 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from Bataan.[9][10]
Harris was taken to Ōfuna POW camp, arriving February 13, 1944[11] and became acquainted with Louis Zamperini. Harris experienced malnutrition and brutal treatment at the hands of his jailers, notably by Sueharu Kitamura (later convicted of war crimes). Due to malnutrition, by mid-1944 the over 6 feet (180 cm) tall Harris weighed only 120 pounds (54 kg) and had beriberi.[12] In September and November 1944, Harris was beaten severely, to the point of unconsciousness, by Kitamura.[13][14] According to fellow captive, Pappy Boyington, Harris was knocked down 20 times with a baseball bat for reading a newspaper stolen from the trash.[15] Harris was near death when he arrived at a POW camp near Ōmori in early 1945. Zamperini provided Harris with additional rations and he recovered.[16] William Harris was chosen to represent prisoners of war during the surrender of Japan, aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.
After World War II, Harris remained in the Marines. He married Jeanne Lejeune Glennon in 1946 and had two daughters.[1]
He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War.[2] He was the commanding officer of Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division (Reinforced) in the Korean War. During the breakout in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, his unit stayed behind as a rear guard to protect retreating forces. Despite heavy losses, Harris rallied his troops and personally went into harm’s way during the battle. Harris was last seen by American forces on December 7, 1950, walking and carrying two rifles on his shoulders. He was listed as missing in action, but after the war when former POWs had neither seen nor heard of him, Harris was declared to be dead. He was awarded the Navy Cross in 1951 for his actions at Chosin. Because of his penchant for escape and survival exhibited during World War II, his peers and family were reluctant to accept his death. A superior officer held on to his Navy Cross for a number of years, expecting to be able to give it to Harris personally.[17]
Remains thought to be his were eventually recovered. His family doubted the remains were his, and conclusive testing using DNA had not been attempted as of 2014.[1]
Awards

For his leadership and heroism on December 7, 1950, Harris was awarded the Navy Cross.
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Colonel William Frederick Harris (MCSN: 0-5917), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving as Commanding Officer of the Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), in action against enemy aggressor forces in the Republic of Korea the early morning of 7 December 1950. Directing his Battalion in affording flank protection for the regimental vehicle train and the first echelon of the division trains proceeding from Hagaru-ri to Koto-ri, Lieutenant Colonel Harris, despite numerous casualties suffered in the bitterly fought advance, promptly went into action when a vastly outnumbering, deeply entrenched hostile force suddenly attacked at point-blank range from commanding ground during the hours of darkness. With his column disposed on open, frozen terrain and in danger of being cut off from the convoy as the enemy laid down enfilade fire from a strong roadblock, he organized a group of men and personally led them in a bold attack to neutralize the position with heavy losses to the enemy, thereby enabling the convoy to move through the blockade. Consistently exposing himself to devastating hostile grenade, rifle and automatic weapons fire throughout repeated determined attempts by the enemy to break through, Lieutenant Colonel Harris fought gallantly with his men, offering words of encouragement and directing their heroic efforts in driving off the fanatic attackers. Stout-hearted and indomitable despite tremendous losses in dead and wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Harris, by his inspiring leadership, daring combat tactics and valiant devotion to duty, contributed to the successful accomplishment of a vital mission and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
— Board of Awards, Serial 1089, 17 October 1951[18]
Harris also received the Purple Heart, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, the Korean War Service Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.[19]
One of my favorite rounds – The 44 Magnum
Also he wrote a great book about the Green Machine & his time in it. Grumpy

New York City has always been pretty congested.
This picture dates back to the 1930s.
The news this morning sported yet another headline trumpeting the sordid state of my countrymen living in New York City. It seems every day brings some fresh new tragedy from some Leftist enclave overrun with homelessness, drug abuse, crime, violence and despair. In this case, some well-to-do woman was walking back to her building when she was accosted by a pair of muggers.
The criminals threw the poor woman against the building and snatched away her purse and phone. The many bystanders present just looked on with disinterest. What made the event newsworthy was that the doorman at her building actually chose to intervene. He shooed away the two miscreants and escorted the shaken woman inside. The two scumbags strolled away laughing as they cataloged their new swag. Oddly, that sort of thing really doesn’t happen down here in the Deep South where I live.

I don’t much want to live in New York City myself. However, the
Statue of Liberty is pretty darn awesome, so there’s that.
Photo by MCJ1800 / Wikipedia
Daylight and Dark
Far be it from me to insinuate that one part of our great republic is superior to any other. I freely admit that, in addition to more than 90,000 homeless people and roughly half a million illegal immigrants, the Big Apple also plays host to the Statue of Liberty. That is indeed pretty darn cool.
My own home state of Mississippi admittedly rates 47th in literacy. Only New Mexico, Texas and California beat us in our race to the bottom. Incidentally, New York is 43rd.
Mine is still a pretty Godly state. We are number one in the country for adults who pray daily and believe in God. We are fourth in church attendance. Additionally, Everytown for Gun Safety, a rabid mob of freedom-averse gun-hating hoplophobes, rates us 49th for gun law strength. I’m pretty proud of that myself.
Every single day at work, I see some redneck guy in my medical clinic and ask him to shed his jacket or vest so I can listen to his chest. That’s when I see it. The next question is invariably, “What you packing?”
I already know the answer to that question, of course, but it is a great way to start a conversation. And that is why we don’t have thugs throwing women up against buildings on the square in Oxford, Mississippi. It is not hyperbole to say that the first time you do that around here, half a dozen armed rednecks are just going to blow you away.
Mine is a constitutional carry state. Down here, your birth certificate is your concealed carry license. We also really love our cops, and they love us. The local fuzz is forever offering free classes on self-defense for women and similar civic-minded stuff. My wife took it. That was great until she got home and wanted to practice what she learned on me.
We had to call the cops a few years ago for a disturbance in the waiting room. Some crazy person was getting out of hand. It happens. One of the responding officers actually arrived on horseback. He had been across the street showing off his police horse at the nearby nursing home when he got the call.
Rednecks are a timeless part of the Deep South. These were photographed back in the early 20th century. However, guys like this are tough, they love America, and they will not stand idly by while women get beat up.
Find a Need and Fill It
If random armed rednecks are a deterrent to crime, that seems like an opportunity to me. We have plenty of armed rednecks down here in Mississippi, while our friends in New York appear to have a relative dearth. As such, I would like to announce my newest business venture. I call it Will’s Redneck Rentals. We gladly export.
Here is one of our hypothetical armed rednecks available for rent — Colt Thompson (I actually know a guy down here named Colt Thompson) has worked for the past 15 years as an electrician. He is 40 pounds overweight, married and has three children. He was a Bud Light man until last year when he inexplicably switched to Coors. His preferred carry piece is a 9mm Springfield Armory Hellcat in a well-used CrossBreed IWB rig. He’s looking for a side gig to help keep things spicy.
Nowadays, Colt is an overweight middle-aged redneck. However, right out of high school, he spent four years in a Ranger battalion. He still shoots regularly and recreationally. That fat, unassuming HVAC repairman can run that Hellcat like a Delta Force commando. He also loves America, goes to church regularly and absolutely hates people who pick on women, like viscerally. Give the guy a cot and keep him in food and beer, and he’s yours for as long as you need him.
So, surf on over to www.mississippiactuallysoundsprettyfreakingawesome.com to sign up for your own rental redneck. We deliver. Additionally, if you are the sort who shakes down women in public spaces, be forewarned. Try that in front of Colt Thompson or one of his peers, and that guy is going to kill you deader than rocks. We guarantee it.

From Hiroshima’s first operational strike to the Demon Core’s deadly lessons, this is how nukes, missteps, and raw physics still terrify a very modern world.
Why Nukes Still Keep Putin Relevant
Humanity has a weird love-hate relationship with nuclear weapons. They are at once everywhere and nowhere. The spectre of nuclear war shapes geopolitics unlike anything else. However, nobody really knows what that would look like.

The Trump Card
Nukes are the only reason anybody on Planet Earth still takes Vladimir Putin seriously. Russia has a population of around 146 million. Russia’s gross domestic product falls just behind that of Italy and just ahead of that of Canada. Germany’s economy is twice as vibrant as that of the Russian Federation.
Ours is ten times larger. Were it not for the 4,309 operational nuclear warheads that Putin maintains, Russia would be rightfully viewed as a Third World backwater goat-spit of a nation. Absent those nukes, the world would have long ago banded together and spanked the Russians right out of Ukraine. However, nuclear war scares absolutely everybody, and for good reason.

Nuclear weapons have only been used twice in real combat, and that was back in 1945. Both of those bombs were essentially prototypes.
North Korea conducted the world’s last live nuclear test in 2017. Imagine how much the world has changed since 1945. Back then, telephones were the size of shoeboxes and were tethered to the wall.
Now they are smaller than a box of wooden matches, ride in your pocket, and will let you talk to people in Norway from a subway in Istanbul. Nuclear weapons evolved just as transformationally; it is simply that nobody tries them out anymore.
Hiroshima: The First Operational Atomic Strike
On 6 November 1945, we dropped the world’s first operational nuclear weapon on Hiroshima, Japan. The Hiroshima bomb was a gun-type design powered by uranium-235. In this case, a slug of uranium was fired along a short barrel to impact a target made from the same stuff.

This violent kinetic reaction created a critical mass that resulted in a nuclear detonation. The Hiroshima bomb had a nominal yield equivalent to around 15,000 tons of conventional TNT explosive. It killed 70,000 people at the time of detonation and claimed about the same number later from residual effects.
Nagasaki: When Smoke Saved Kokura
Three days later, we deployed a second nuclear device over Nagasaki. Curiously, Nagasaki was not the primary target. The second atomic bomb strike was to be directed at Kokura, but thick smoke over the target spared that city. The aircraft commander, a 25-year-old Army Air Corps pilot named Charles Sweeney, made the call on the fly to switch targets to Nagasaki.

This second bomb was an altogether different design that was markedly more complicated than the first. This weapon was powered by plutonium-239. Plutonium-239 does not occur in nature.
This isotope is a byproduct of the reaction that occurs when uranium-238 captures a loose neutron inside a nuclear reactor. Plutonium-239 is more easily produced than uranium-235. However, it is tougher to get plutonium-239 to go off uniformly.
The second bomb used an altogether different mechanism. A series of chemical explosive charges configured similarly to the individual components of a soccer ball were arrayed circumferentially around a plutonium core.
When carefully detonated at exactly the same moment, this created an immense imploding pressure wave that drove the plutonium to critical mass and resulted in a nuclear detonation. This nuclear strike killed 74,000 people at the moment of detonation and claimed a further 70,000 souls by the end of the year.
Manhattan Project Money, Pressure, and Mistakes
The Manhattan Project was the program that created these two weapons. It cost $2 billion in 1945. That would be about $30 billion today.
The Manhattan Project was the second-most expensive military undertaking of World War 2. Curiously, the most expensive was the production of the B-29 Superfortress bomber that delivered the weapons. The overall cost of the B-29 program was closer to $3 billion.

Nuclear research in 1944 and 1945 was moving at light speed. We desperately needed the A-bomb as a tool to end the war. We knew that every other major combatant nation on Planet Earth was rabid for this capability. Whoever first deployed nuclear weapons at scale would undoubtedly emerge victorious. That pressure to produce resulted in some tidy little tragedies.
How Atomic Energy Gets So Big From So Little
Nuclear energy is just crazy weird if you think about it. The laws of conservation of mass and energy posit that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed; they just change forms. When you strike a match, the fuel in the match doesn’t actually cease to exist. It just changes into hot gases, smoke, ash, and the like. Those laws no longer apply when it comes to nuclear reactions.

When the first bomb detonated over Hiroshima, about 0.7 grams’ worth of uranium—roughly the same weight as a small paperclip—was instantly transformed into pure energy. That uranium no longer existed within the physical universe.
It had actually been turned into energy in accordance with Einstein’s E=MC2. If my math is correct, that paperclip’s worth of uranium released as much energy as two million conventional 155mm high-explosive artillery rounds all going off at one time. Wow…
The Demon Core: A Softball-Sized Killer
The thing about radioactive material is that you really don’t want to get any of it on you. The half-life for plutonium-239 is 24,110 years. That means it takes 24,110 years for half of a quantity of radioactive plutonium-239 to degrade into something less lethal. That stuff is unimaginably dangerous.

Back in 1945, we had little clue what we were doing. The eggheads who made it called this particular sphere of plutonium gallium alloy Rufus. Rufus was 8.9 cm in diameter. That’s roughly 3.5 inches. For the sake of comparison, a regulation softball is 3.8 inches across.
Plutonium is really dense. This softball-sized chunk weighed 14 pounds. As plutonium corrodes readily in the presence of oxygen, this sphere was coated with nickel to help retain its stability. Rufus eventually became known as the Demon Core.
We built this monster to power the third atomic bomb that was obviously never dropped on Japan. When Japan capitulated, the core was retained at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico for research. One of the questions that needed to be answered was exactly how close this thing was to criticality just sitting on a table.
Daghlian’s Accident: A Brick, A Spark, A Fatal Dose
Plutonium naturally releases neutrons. Focusing these neutrons back into the material is what causes the mass to go supercritical and explode. How much of that neutron flux was required to get the party started was important to know.
On 21 August 1945, a 24-year-old physicist named Haroutune “Harry” Krikor Daghlian was studying just that. To do so, he stacked tungsten carbide bricks circumferentially around the magic ball. Tungsten carbide is an effective neutron reflector. While he was occupied doing this, a 29-year-old military security guard named Robert Hemmerly sat at a desk some dozen feet away.

As Daghlian carefully stacked these heavy bricks around the core, he accidentally let one slip out of his hands. This thing bounced off the plutonium sphere, creating an impressive shower of sparks.
He immediately moved the offending brick back to its intended spot. 25 days later, Harry Daghlian died of acute radiation syndrome. Private Hemmerly succumbed to acute myelogenous leukemia in 1978, 33 years after the accident. Hemmerly was 62 at the time.
Tickling the Dragon’s Tail: Slotin’s Fatal Slip
On 21 May 1946, a physicist named Louis Slotin was tending to Rufus alongside seven assistants. They were, likewise, studying the effects of neutron reflectors on critical mass. Slotin was actually scheduled to leave Los Alamos. He was only present to demonstrate the technique to Alvin Graves, another physicist who was planning to use this core during Operation Crossroads, the nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll.

In this case, the reflectors were a matching pair of machined beryllium spheres. The astute film nerd will recall the comic reference to beryllium spheres in the epic sci-fi farce Galaxy Quest. Galaxy Quest is one of my favorite movies. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. You’ll thank me later.

Anyway, the protocol required that these spheres be arranged around the plutonium core using shims to maintain a slight separation so the mass did not become critical. However, Louis Slotin was a rebel. Arcane workplace safety rules didn’t apply to him.
Slotin had done this many times with several different cores, often while dressed in blue jeans and cowboy boots. His technique was to wedge a flat-tip screwdriver in between the beryllium spheres and twist as needed to adjust the spacing. When the esteemed nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi heard about this, he predicted that Slotin would be dead within a year. A colleague named Richard Feynman referred to this unorthodox technique as “Tickling the dragon’s tail.”

As he lowered the top sphere, Slotin’s screwdriver slipped. The two spheres were in contact for less than a second before Slotin flipped the top half onto the floor. Slotin was crouching over the apparatus at the time, so his body shielded most of the rest of his team from the explosive neutron burst.

Slotin was 35 at the time. He died of acute radiation poisoning nine days later. Of the remaining six people present, Marion Cieslicki succumbed to acute myelocytic leukemia 19 years after the accident in 1965. Surprisingly, the rest all died of fairly reasonable causes.

What A Real Nuclear Exchange Might Mean Today
The Hiroshima bomb had a nominal output of 15,000 tons of TNT. The Russian Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, was 3,000 times more powerful. The W88 warhead that currently rides atop modern American nuclear missiles produces 475 kilotons of explosive force, roughly 32 times that of the Hiroshima bomb.

I read recently that somebody believed that the US would return to its current GDP roughly a decade after a global nuclear exchange. Other really smart folks think a serious nuclear war would end all life on Planet Earth. Personally, I’d just as soon we not answer that question any time soon.







