The dawn of the Cold War. Two superpowers race to build a weapon of unlimited power ... It was a race that would push the world to the edge of catastrophe. The American Experience: Race For the Superbomb, PBS 2015
‘It was an organic necessity. If you are a scientist, you cannot stop such a thing.’ ibid. Oppenheimer
Before long Stalin would have his bomb. ibid.
The race for the superbomb was on. ibid.
In April of 1954 the ANC held secret hearings to view the security clearance of its most prominent scientist – Oppenheimer stood accused of earlier left-wing sympathies and more to the point of opposing the development of the hydrogen bomb. The American Experience II: Race For the Superbomb
They would now test prototypes of an H-bomb, small enough to be dropped from a plane. The first test codenamed Bravo took place on Bikini Atoll in March 1954. ibid.
In 1939 Germany was under the spell of a charismatic madman. His goal – world domination. German scientists were the first to split the atom. Putting them one step closer to a bomb that could win the war in one terrible explosion. Race for the World’s First Atomic Bomb, caption, BBC 2015
The action he [Roosevelt] demanded came to known as the Manhattan Project. The war in Europe raged on. ibid.
The work at Los Alamos was a race to beat the Germans to the bomb. ibid.
They feared the bomb could ignite the atmosphere. ibid.
Let’s bomb Russia! ... Let’s kick Michael Foot’s stick away! Kenny Everett, Conservative Party rally
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia for ever. The bombing begins in five minutes. Ronald Reagan, microphone test 1984
On 11th October 1984 at the height of the miners’ strike an IRA bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Thatcher: The Downing Street Years II: Best of Enemies, BBC 2013
I would seriously like to bomb Middlesborough off the face of the Earth. Alan Bleasdale, Boys from the Black Stuff: Jobs for the Boys 1982, Chrissie in van, BBC 1982
A Federal Grand Jury in Detroit today charged the thirteen top leaders of the Weathermen with plotting to bomb public buildings in Chicago, Detroit, New York and Berkeley California. The Weathermen are the militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society. Green & Siegel, The Weather Underground, news broadcast, 2002
The underground Weatherman organisation claimed responsibility for the San Francisco and the Sacramento bombings. ibid.
This is Chesil Beach in Dorset. In January 1943 a British engineer called Barnes Wallace came here to carry full-scale trials of his latest invention: a bomb that could bounce on water. James Holland, Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams, PBS 2011
V2 missiles weren't the only superweapon Hitler had pointing at Britain: in great secrecy, three hundred metres below ground ... the finishing touches to another more fearsome threat ... A superbomb built on three levels. What the Dumbusters Did Next, Channel 5 2014
But at 1.28 p.m. on that March 12th, a new and most sinister element joined the merry pandemonium: the roar of half a ton of the world’s most powerful explosive. RDX, ripping up from the underground garage of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), and into the pit where traders were just preparing for the lunch bell. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Over the next two hours, a further seven bombs went off at crowded locations throughout the city, while grenades were thrown in another two places by men on motorcycles. ibid.
Our obsession with the bomb was faintly ludicrous in the face of growing American and Russian superiority. This, incidentally, was a view which was quite widely held by scientists working at a lower levels in the Services in the 1950s. Peter Wright, Spycatcher
I found missile research utterly demoralizing. Partly it was because I was hoping I would soon be joining MI5. But I was not alone in realizing that the missile system was unlikely ever to be built. It was a folly, a monument to British self-delusion. In any case this kind of science was ultimately negative. Why spend a life developing a weapon you hope and pray will never be used. ibid. p26
The press have dubbed him the Fizzle bomber. We stopped him this time, but this was only a small attack. This is his grand plan: March 1975 – he keeps changing the day – the explosion will level ten blocks of New York and leave over eleven thousand dead. Predestination 2014 starring Ethan Hawke & Sarah Snook & Monique Heath & Olivia Sprague & Noah Taylor & Madeleine West & Christopher Kirby & Freya Stafford & Jim Knobeloch & Christopher Stollery & Tyler Coppin & Rob Jenkins et al, directors Michael & Peter Spierig
‘Canary Wharf sent the message that peace and war are both options, and neither one is a given.’ The Docklands Bomb: Executing Peace, BBC 2016
Between 1990 and 1993, the IRA targeted London’s financial heart with a series of massive bombs, which killed several people and caused more than £1 billion of damage. ibid. caption
In August 1994, after 25 years of conflict and 3,500 deaths the IRA declared a ceasefire. ibid.
On the eve of President Clinton’s visit to Northern Island, the British and Irish governments appointed former US senator George Mitchell to work out how to get the terrorists to disarm while getting peace negotiations underway between the parties. ibid.
The IRA reinstated its ceasefire in July 1997 allowing Sinn Fein to join the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. ibid.
President Nixon and Mr Kissinger unleashed 100,000 tons of bombs, the equivalent of five Hiroshimas. The bombing was their personal decision. Illegally and secretly they bombed Cambodia, a neutral country, back to the Stone Age. John Pilger, Return to Year Zero, ITV 1993
Hitler bombed London into submission but in fact it created a sense of national solidarity. Tom Paulin
He was a brilliant mathematician but a troubled man. He launched a bombing campaign that killed three, maimed four and injured nineteen. His base of operation was crude, but his devices were lethal. Unabomber: Crimes of the Century, Discovery 2016
From the beginning the investigation was hampered by a lack of evidence. ibid.
The bombs became more sophisticated and more lethal. ibid.
‘Wednesday 31st July 1996: Special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are presently executing a federal search warrant.’ Judging Jewell ***** rozzers’ announcement, ESPN short 2014
‘Richard Jewell’s mother’s apartment was searched and seized live on national television.’ ibid. commentator
‘Was there one bomb? Was there many?’ ibid.
‘Richard Jewell saved my life.’ ibid.
‘They talked about a security guard … seemed like the real hero in all this.’ ibid.
‘Guard’s alertness in park makes him an unexpected hero.’ ibid. newspaper article
‘The mood is one of suspicion.’ ibid.
‘And then it got ugly.’ ibid.
Jewell was unable to find employment in law enforcement for over a year. In 1997 he accepted a position with the police department in Luthersville GA, population 793. He was paid $8 an hour. ibid.
How can you lose something as conspicuous as an atomic bomb? Phenomenon: The Lost Archives: Irretrievably Lost: The Search for the Savannah Warhead, 1009
On February 13th 1950 America loses its first atomic bomb … in the Pacific. ibid.
1956: Over the Sahara desert but no trace of the bomber, its crew or its nuclear cargo is ever found. ibid.
Some crashes were different; some involved nuclear bombs. ibid.
102,780. I’ve been speaking to some of the happy smiling grateful casualties of the bombing. Spitting Image s3e17, Norman Tebbit dressed as Kate Adie, ITV 1986