Air & Space Power Journal

Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Simon and Schuster, Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York 10020, 1995, 731 pages, $32.50.

Richard Rhodes won a Pulitzer prize for The Making of the Atomic Bomb, to which Dark Sun is a sequel. In this work, the author narrates the development of the hydrogen bomb, in both the United States and, through the "transfer of technology," in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. But this is also a detective story of the highest order and most profound importance. Rhodes revisits the development of the atomic bombs of World War II and examines how the Russians built a spy system to transfer that knowledge from the US to a fledgling team of Soviet nuclear scientists, who were already at work before the first stolen information arrived from the United States. He has worked in the archives of Russia, interviewed many of their principals who yet survive, and talked with Westerners who served in counterintelligence and counterespionage efforts throughout World War II.

Rhodes carries his tale of scientific inquiry and intrigue into the cold war years and tells of the efforts to produce a "super" bomb. There is the dedication and, according to Rhodes, the connivance of Edward Teller. There is the brilliant work of Klaus Fuchs, the spy, and John von Neumann, the mathematician, who conceived of the "Monte Carlo" phenomenon as an analytical tool to help overcome the enormous calculation problems. He writes about the development of the first modern computer as a step towards the design of the "Super" and about the roles of many American and foreign scientists in the design of that computer, all of which helped us become the world's foremost nuclear power.

Rhodes reveals the effectiveness of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and the spy ring of which they were a part, in transferring nuclear technology to the Soviets. The book lays out how they were apprehended, who was involved, and how convincing was the evidence. He has an appendix that covers the J. Robert Oppenheimer "spy case" as a secondary story to the Rosenberg ring, which shows that persecution by legal investigation is not new. Much of this appears to be Rhodes's own new work in pulling the whole story together for the first time. This is a most compelling piece of work, and every military officer with access to classified material should read carefully how the Soviets worked to put the whole picture together. It is still frightening to realize how stupid we were about it all.

The reader who lacks substantial knowledge of the hard sciences may find this thriller a bit difficult to read. The author has made himself an expert on both nuclear physics and other scientific aspects of the development of the Super. The explanations of the implosion device are fascinating reading for people with a scientific turn of mind, and the differences between fission and fusion device operations and effects may be well known to weaponeers, but they are certainly a revelation to readers without weapons knowledge.

Although Rhodes's thesis is rather concealed, only because he never lays it out clearly, the title should have been How the Russians Stole the Bomb. This book is a superb tale of scientific development and American brilliance in the building of the international design team and the resulting bomb. But most of all, it is a fascinating tale of suspense and intrigue, and of our being thoroughly fooled by the Russians. Dark Sun is a must read for the professional officer who handles classified material.

Prof James A. Mowbray
Maxwell AFB, Alabama