Thirteen Hours Late

August 6th, is a day of international mourning for the victims of Hiroshima. Peace vigils, memorial services, prayer services, masses, protests and all kinds of observations will be organized, to remember the 70,000 dead.

In Oak Ridge, Tennessee every year, there is a small service performed at 8:15 on the morning of August 6th. outside the main entrance of the Y-12 National Security Complex, where the uranium used in the Hiroshima was enriched.

I’ve never been to the service, but video is on the Internet. Many prayers are offered, there is a bell which is rung at appropriate moments and although the crowd is small there is no doubting the sincerity of the mourners or their desires for a more peaceful world.

For all their sincerity though, all of the services are profoundly disrespectful of the dead. To memorialize the dead, it is wise to make sure the setting, the ceremony and the environment is totally respectful. They get one tiny fact wrong, in their planning. They get the time wrong.

When all those bells chime across the eastern United States in honoring of the dead, it is done 13 hours late. The bomb was detonated at 7:15 on the evening of August 5th. It seems these services would be far more powerful if they could get the basic facts right.

The Washington Times

Yesterday, August 4th, there was an op/ed piece in The Washington Times by editor in chief emeritus Wesley Pruden about The Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He referred to Ignored Heroes with some very kind comments. I am a very lucky man.

 

 

Edgar Sengier: An ignored hero of World War II.

    Today is the 53rd anniversary of the death of Edgar Sengier. Edgar who? He is the most important ignored hero of World War II.

    In September of 1942, Colonel Kenneth Nichols, 2nd in command of The Manhattan Project, was tasked by General Groves to find a source of uranium for The Manhattan Project. Nichols, based on scientific reports, headed to New York to meet with Edgar Sengier.

    Sengier, a Belgian geologist, owned a uranium mine in Shinkolobwe, Congo. When they met, Nichols asked if the Congo mine could supply uranium ore for the project’s use. 

     His response might be the most stunning answer of World War II. 

    “You can have the ore now. It is in New York, a thousand tons of it. I was waiting for your visit.”

     The back story. The Shinkolobwe mine is a geological freak of nature. Much of the ore in the world has 1.5% uranium in it. Experts claim that fraction of ore is a solid number for enrichment. The Congo mine’s ore was 65% uranium. An astonishing number.

    Sengier, knew, somehow, someway, that this ore could be used for a weapon and that Hitler must not ever get the Congo ore. So, Sengier, without help and without compensation, shipped 1,200 tons of uranium ore to New York City, to keep it out of German hands. He shipped the ore in November of 1940. Colonel Nichols walked into his office in September of 1942.

      It was an amazing act of foresight and courage. He is perhaps, the most unknown, most ignored hero of World War II.

The POTUS Club Abandons Give 'Em Hell Harry

The POTUS Club is the most elite club in the world. Made up of ex-Presidents of the United States of America, both living and dead, it charges no dues, membership cannot be revoked, and they almost never meet, except to attend the funeral of another member.

Though members do talk to each other. The current president, regardless of party, will seek counsel from other members. The Oval Office can be a very lonely place and the perspectives of others who have sat in the chair and dealt with the same pressures can be essential. 

And out of an excess of empathy, members bend over backwards to not publicly criticize each other, to the extent they can. Members know the job is impossibly hard without POTUS members sniping at each other too.

Members hold themselves to high standards of etiquette with fellow members. Because of these high standards, it makes their treatment of Harry Truman just plain baffling, and appalling too

Truman made the most difficult decision of any president ever: he decided to use atomic weapons, a new technology, against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended World War II. All the members know how important, and tough was Truman’s decision. They should doubt their own strength of character to make the same decision.

You would think members of the POTOS Club would be all over supporting Ol’ Harry, but you would be wrong. Their betrayal has been one of silence, which is the most damning, shameless betrayal of all. They don’t condemn his decision, but won’t support it either.

There have been 11 presidents since Truman. One, Eisenhower, openly disagreed with the decision, 18 years after the fact. George H. W. Bush, implicitly supported the decision by directly saying, during the 50th. anniversary of the bombings, that he would never apologize for the bombings. Bush #41 fought in World War II. He is our last president to fight in World War II. He understands the stakes involved.

Both Nixon and Carter went to the memorial park in Hiroshima. Nixon went before he was president and Carter went years after he left office. Obama went to Hiroshima in May. None of these pre-presidents, post presidents or current presidents made statements that would offer solace to Truman. Again. Truman is left swinging in the wind. Abandoned.

 It would be fascinating to me if journalists would confront the fourformer presidents and the current president with a simple question: “Do you support Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Yes or no?”

The POTUS Club of living presidents would be split in an unexpected way. I would guess that the two Republican presidents would say support Truman. I would guess that the two former Democratic presidents and our current Democratic president would squirm and not directly answer the question. Harry Truman was a Democrat. He made the most difficult decision of any president ever. The POTUS Club, by a 3-2 vote, with two Republicans voting yes, and with the three Democrats voting no, would leave Truman swinging in the wind. Abandoned. This is a stunning fact to me. Welcome to America in 2016.

 

Trinity and Delivery Trucks in France

Today is the 71st anniversary of the testing bombing at the Trinity site in New Mexico, just 21 days prior to Hiroshima and 24 before Nagasaki.

Much has been made of the world that was left behind on the desert floor, and the threshold mankind crossed in a tiny fraction of a second. Hiroshima was the first use of an atomic weapon during war. Nagasaki was the last…we hope. There have been accidents at commercial nuclear plants and military crashes with bombs onboard, but the world has not witnessed another detonation in anger, malice or retribution. We’ve been very lucky, but it has been a kind of miracle that the last 71 years have been atomically peaceful.

Nations have decided that there can be a nuclear club, if aspiring countries agree to play by the rules. Nations which don’t, face severe trade sanctions which can cripple an economy. It is a far from perfect system, but it has worked for the last 71 years.

Nation-states aren’t the main worry of 2016: it’s terrorist groups. Groups with great financial reach, can and will, purchase the technology to build nuclear weapons or sympathetic rogue states will do it for them. Perhaps a hybrid of both strategies.

But the terrorists look for advantage, trying to leverage their advantage which is their Internet reach with their propaganda. Terror camps aren’t necessary when the YouTube of the dark web can recruit and train all over the world.

So now, the threat is a single man in a delivery truck, plowing through crowds of people, celebrating French Independence Day. Yes, there is a deep irony in this. We focus on nuclear weapons and then 19 men with boxcutters stun a nation.

Calendar is filling out a bit

It's been a few weeks since the book came out, but the speaking calendar and book-signing commitments are coming in. There will be an interview on PBS in Knoxville on Sunday at 5pm on their show Tennessee Life. It will air over the entire state, but at different times in different markets. Chattanooga is at 2pm and Nashville, I think, is 1pm. Check local listings, as they say.

As I build-out this website, there will be a calendar here where you can view future speaking engagements and book-signings. You can email me at richardcook@ignoredheroes.com if you have a speaking request. 

Stay warm everybody.

Book signing at The Ferrell Shop today.

Cold this morning. Have a book signing today at The Ferrell Shop today from 1 - 4pm, then I will come back home and work on this website.

I hate working on this website because I don't have a clue what I am doing. No doubt, there are "experts" that would take a few thousand dollars off my hands to construct this site, but I think about the money and think about my time, and, as has happened in the past, I've got more watch, than wallet right now.

Right now, the priority is to build the page where you can go and buy the book online. I need to make sure that is working well for the customers. I just started posting last night that books were available online.

Under construction...

"Ignored Heroes of World War II" has been up and running for almost three days. It will take awhile to get all the content posted, but as of Sunday night, you can buy books online and have them delivered anywhere in the country. I need to figure out how to mail books internationally at a rate that won't bust the bank for my customers.

Book sales have been very strong regionally, and with the website, Oak Ridgers all over the country can now order books 24/7. Mailed by USPS Priority Mail, books should arrive in 2-3 days in most cases.

Also, when buying books, you can click on the "additional information" window and send me requests for personally inscribed books, at no extra charge.

And at this blog, you can offer comments on how to improve the customer experience. This is my first website with eCommerce. I will need tons of help.