\ ‘, ~52is apparently not considered to be crucial. While the retention of such secrets would impose upon the scicntists of other nations the necessity of carrying through a good deal of tine-consuming research which vould nerely duplicate that already done in this country, there seems to be little question that countrics like the Soviet Union and France and probably several of the lesscr nations of Europe have the resources in scientific talent to accomplish it. It is (a) the technical and engincering details of the manufacturing process for the fission- able materials and (b) the design of the bomb itsclf which arc thought to be the critical hurdles. { “N At a public meeting in Vashingtonim,Dec uber 11, 1945, Major Genoral Leslic R. Groves permitted hinsolf the observation that the bomb was not a problem for us but for our grandchildren, ‘hat he obviously intended that statement to con- voy was the idea that it would take other nations, like Russia, many years to duplicate our feat. When it was submitted to him that the scientists who worked on the problen were practically wnaninous in their disagreement, he responded that they did not understand the proble:z, The difficulties to be overcome, he insists, are not primarily of a scientific but of an engineering character. And while the Sovict Union may have first-rate sciontists, it clearly docs not have the great resources in engincering talent or the industrial laboratorics that we enjoy. Perhaps ac3 but there are a fow pertinent facts which bear on such a surmise. First of all, it has always beon axiomatic in the armed services that the only way really to keep a device secret is to keep the fact of its existence secrct. Thus, the essential basis of secrecy of the atomic bomb disappeared on August 6, 1945. But the samc day sav the release of the Smyth Repert, which was subse- quently published in book form and widcly distributed. Members of the Var Department who approved its publication, including Gencral Groyes himself, insist that it reveals nothing cf importance. But scientists close +to the project point out that the Smyth Report reveals substantially everything that the Amcrican and 7