Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll

By Jonathan M. Weisgall and Tiffany Clarke Harrison

Provides a study of the 1946 nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, by an attorney for displaced atoll inhabitants seeking to return home.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557509190
• ISBN13: 9781557509192
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Length: 415 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Link Between World War II and Cold War Eras

For the World War II history enthusiast who wondered what happened after the conclusion of the Pacific War, Weisgall has provided an enjoyable, highly readable account of U.S. atomic testing at Bikini Atoll in 1946. The reader will not fail to be astonished at the level of ignorance--and, sadly, apathy--on the part of military brass as they tinkered with America's newest and deadliest weapon. In the context of the U.S. Navy's attempt to get a stake in the nuclear game, under the aegis of Adm. William "Spike" Blandy--who, during World War II, commanded the battlewagons that shelled Iwo Jima--"Crossroads" engagingly details the behind-the-scenes bureaucratic wrangling and public perceptions associated with how exactly to use the weapon of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The book features appearances by Harry Truman, Robert Oppenheimer, and other major players associated with the Manhattan Project. And for the naval afficionado, the book chronicles the final fate of such well-known fighting ships as the Saratoga, Salt Lake City, and Prinz Eugen. Intertwined throughout is the sad story of the Bikini Islanders, who agreed to allow the U.S. to conduct atomic testing in their home and wound up becoming nuclear nomads. Finally, Weisgall also provides an important contribution to U.S. naval history in his description of how the Bikini tests caused the Navy to utilize nuclear power aboard its warships and develop the submarine as a key component to U.S. strategic nuclear strategy. This was a cracking good yarn that any reader of Samuel Eliot Morison or Barbara Tuchman will enjoy. Highly recommended.

A Chilling Look at the Dawn of the Cold War

Jonathan Weisgall has done an incredible job of not only documenting the politics and in-fighting leading up to the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, but doing so in a very readable and compelling style. With the kind of factual back-up and verbal acuity possessed by only the most effective of attorneys (which Weisgall must be, given his success as counsel for the Bikini islanders), Weisgall takes the reader from the hallways of the Pentagon to the decks of the target ships swinging at anchor at Bikini Atoll. His narrative manages to touch on a wide variety of diverse topics -- cold war politics, in-fighting within the military bureaucracy, slipshod planning for radiation emergencies, and the popularization of atomic weaponry -- in a manner that is both entertaining and competent.Weisgall is also adept at humanizing the Bikini islanders and conveying their plight to the reader. What emerges from his book is how, in the arrogance of its emergence as the world's first nuclear super-power, the United States managed to steal away this little corner of paradise and lay waste to it in a cynical exercise of military politics. I read Weisgall's book shortly before spending a week diving the shipwrecks of Bikini Atoll, and cannot adequately convey just how well he captures the tragedy of this haunted island.

Weisgall is par excellence on his documentation

Imagine witnessing two young boys outside fighting over a toy, each grabbing the opposite ends and finally breaking it as they pulled too hard. This analogy can also be used between the Army Air Force and Navy over the peacetime use of atomic weapons at the conclusion of the second world war. Jonathan Weisgall's book on Operation Crossroads demonstrates the blistering competition for tax dollars between the Army and Navy in 1946 and beyond. Crossroads not only was a basis for continuing scientific research with nuclear energy, but also served as an excuse by the United States government to play with this new "toy" and how the civilian and military branches fought over controlling it. It also goes into great depth on describing how the government deceived the Marshalleise inhabitants. This book reveals this and shows the folly of the tests, as well as the long term health and ecological ramifications of atomic testing on both the Marshalleise as well as the rest of the world. Crossroads was a nuclear catastrophe, probably equaled to that of Chernobyl. Weisgall's detailed information about the first two tests (Abel and Baker) cannot be equaled. He also writes about test Charlie, the aborted attempt to blow up an atom bomb about a thousand feet below the surface of the ocean. Even back then, scientists fought the Army and Navy tooth and nail to cancel this test knowing that it would have caused a greater ecological disaster than the first two detonations. Operation Crossroads was not only the beginning of postwar atomic testing, but it also signaled things to come in the atomic age. Jonathan Weisgall does a careful analysis of the documentation that came out of the first atomic tests at Bikini Atoll. A must-read for anyone who wants to delve deeper into this unfortunate period of history.

An astounding account of the early atomic tests

Jonathan Weisgall has given us an astounding account of the atomic tests on Bikini Atoll. This book goes into fine detail about the preparations for Operation Crossroads, the first atomic tests at Bikini. It goes into great depth, describing the mismanagement of America's atomic policies toward the Marshalleise. It even goes as far as to describe how faulty the geiger counters were when the men (and women) who were exposed to the Able ("Gilda") and Baker ("Helen of Bikini") detonations. Also, Weisgall explains how the men would try to "wash" off the radiation, not only from themselves, but off of the hulls of their ships and some of the targets. They used bleach, sand, clam shells and acid! It demonstrates how ignorant we were (and still are!) about the dangers of radiation. This book is highly recommended to anyone who wants to gain an understanding of the early atomic tests as well as the perils involved.