nN -17- \ importance. Presented below are a number of conclusions concerning the character of the bomb which seem to this writer to be inescapable. Some of the eight points listed already enjoy fairly wniversal acceptance; most do not. After offering with each one an explanation of why he believes it to be true, ™ the writer will attempt to deduce from these several conclusions or postulates the effect of the bomb on the character of war. I. The power of the present bomb is such that any city in the world can be effectively destroyed by one to ten bombs. , 7 2 A a While this proposition is not likely to evoke much dissent, its immediate implications have been resisted or ignored by important public officials. implications are two-fold. These First, it is now physically possible for air forces no greater than those existing in the recent war to wipe out all the cities of a great nation in a single day—-and it will be shown subsequently that what is physically possible must be regarded as tactically fe present industrial organization the elimination of o elimination for military purposes of practically the whole of our industrial structure. But before testing these extraordinary implications, let us examine and verify the original proposition. x stud q skew ee The bomb dropped ofTiiroshindjconpletely pulverized an area of which the radius from the point of detonation was about one and one-quarter miles. However, everything within a radius of two miles was blasted with some burning and between two and three miles the buildings were about half destroyed. Thus the area of total destruction covered about four square miles, and the area of destruction and substantial damage extended over some twenty-seven square miles. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki, while causing less damage than the Hiroshima bomb because of the physical characteristics of the city, was nevertheless considerably more powerful. We have it on Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's authority that the Nagasaki bomb "would have taken out ten square miles, or a bit more, if there had been 2