This is a classic article from 快猫短视频鈥檚 archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
Dr. Edward Teller, a physicist who took a leading part in the production of the American H-bomb, made some ambitious claims for small nuclear weapons at the last annual meeting of the Association of the U S Army. He disagreed with those who had 鈥渏umped to the conclusion that nuclear bombs as such are weapons of terror and cannot be used except to create wholesale destruction.鈥�
Dr. Teller said that in contrast to the last war鈥檚 massive concentration of men and materials, he envisaged a warfare of extreme mobility and dispersion. He explained that he had in mind an army of self-contained battle groups of only a few hundred men each, armed with nuclear weapons 鈥渢ailored鈥� to meet their exact needs.
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He concluded: 鈥淭he battle groups of such an army could be made to appear at almost any place in the world within a time not exceeding two days. They could fight for control of vital position wherever necessary. They could be at the service of our allies in the time of need without bombing them to bits. In sum, an army composed of such units would be more like the knife of a surgeon and less like the axe of an executioner.鈥�
Dr. Teller鈥檚 eminence as a physicist does not guarantee his judgment as a strategist. In this speech he does not seem to have made any reference to the enemy鈥檚 reactions to this convenient method of warfare. Dr. Teller was born a Hungarian; so there is perhaps an understandable element of wishful thinking in this belief that small nations could be liberated without the risk of destroying them.
At least, however, Dr. Teller鈥檚 claims about the possible speed of delivery of small battle groups have been justified. Three US Army Air Force B52 heavy bombers have circumnavigated the globe in 45 hours. It is reported that they carried out a mock atom bombing operation on the way. This was presumably a conventional drop, which presents no difficulties to high altitude aircraft flying at 10 miles a minute. But the delivery of tactical weapons by fighters presents more serious problems, if the attacking aircraft is not to be destroyed by its own bomb.
First published in 快猫短视频 31 January 1957
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