Additional Reading
The history of nuclear weapons is the subject of voluminous literature. Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986), is an excellent work on the U.S. effort to develop nuclear weapons. It can be supplemented by the official histories: Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan, the Army and the Atomic Bomb (1985); David Hawkins, Edith C. Truslow, and Ralph Carlisle Smith, Manhattan District History-Project Y, the Los Alamos Project, 2 vol. (1961, reprinted as Project Y, the Los Alamos Story, in 1 vol. with a new introduction, 1983); and Richard G. Hewlett, Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., and Francis Duncan, A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, 2 vol. (1962–69); continued by Richard G. Hewlett and Jack M. Hall, Atoms for Peace and War, 1953–1961 (1989). For the development of thermonuclear weapons, see Herbert F. York, The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb (1976); and Hans A. Bethe, “Comments on the History of the H-Bomb,” Los Alamos Science, 3(3):43–53 (Fall 1982). Technical data are compiled in Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, and Milton M. Hoenig, U.S. Nuclear Forces and Capabilities (1984); and Thomas B. Cochran et al., U.S. Nuclear Warhead Production (1987), and U.S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles (1987).
The British project is discussed in the official histories of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority: Margaret Gowing, Britain and Atomic Energy, 1939–1945 (1964), and Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–1952, 2 vol. (1974). Little has been published about the program of the former U.S.S.R., but see David Holloway, The Soviet Union and the Arms Race, 2nd ed. (1984); and Thomas B. Cochran, Soviet Nuclear Weapons (1989). No official history is available for the French project. Bertrand Goldschmidt, Les Rivalités atomiques, 1939–1966 (1967), is a semiofficial account by a participant. The Chinese project is covered in John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (1988). David Irving, The German Atomic Bomb (1968, reprinted 1983), covers the German program; and Robert K. Wilcox, Japan's Secret War (1985), examines Japanese work on the atomic bomb. Proliferation developments are followed in Leonard S. Spector, Nuclear Proliferation Today (1984), The New Nuclear Nations (1985), Going Nuclear (1987), and The Undeclared Bomb (1988).