The Civilianization of a Nuclear Weapon Effects Test: Operation ARGUS

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Mundey

In 1958 the United States secretly conducted a low-yield, high-atmosphere nuclear weapon effects test in the South Atlantic code-named ARGUS. It tested a theory devised by Nicholas Christofilos that an anti-missile shield could be created around the planet by trapping high-energy electrons in the Earth’s radiation field. In order to conduct the test before the October 1958 nuclear test moratorium, the military borrowed International Geophysical Year equipment and used the program as cover for the clandestine nuclear tests. Though the experiment determined that an electron shield could not work, it provided important research data for weapon effects, atmospheric physics, and long-distance communications. In March 1959, Hanson Baldwin and Walter Sullivan of the New York Times published an unauthorized account of the tests. In response, the White House presented ARGUS as a civilian science program of the International Geophysical Year rather than a nuclear weapon effects test. In the internal debate about declassification, in the publicity of the test, and in the memories of James Killian and Herbert York, Operation ARGUS demonstrates that many scientists and Americans remained comfortable with anti-militarism, even under militarized policies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Stanislav ALEXANDROV ◽  

The purpose of the research. In accordance with the problem-chronological approach, the article systematized the materials of “The New York Times” newspaper about Nursultan Nazarbayev in the period during 1989-2001. Despite the membership of the Communist Party from 1962-1991, the condemnation of the collapse of the USSR, the promotion of the idea of new economic and political integration in the post-Soviet space, the President of Kazakhstan was portrayed on the pages of “The New York Times” as a progressive independent pro-American politician. Nevertheless, by the end of the second half of the 1990-s there were dramatic changes in the current image, the Kazakh leader began to associate with an autocrat and a corrupt official. This work is aimed at finding the reasons for the transformation of the image of the Kazakh politician. Results. The study concluded that the reason for the transformation of the image of the President of Kazakhstan was the deterioration of relations with official Washington. The favorable image of Nursultan Nazarbayev in “The New York Times” was an indicator not only of the benevolent attitude of newspaper journalists, but also of US loyalty. During the period of partnership with the White House, the image of politician Nursultan Nazarbayev remained pleasant for readers of the New York newspaper. In the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. Washington was favorable to Nursultan Nazarbayev, since the president’s policy satisfied the United States: defending independence, switching to a market economy, renouncing nuclear weapons, and access to Kazakh oil. During this period, the negative features of the Kazakh leader were not displayed or smoothed out on the pages of the New York newspaper, while the strengths were intentionally emphasized. After the current American goals in the Central Asian republic were achieved, interest in the figure of Nursultan Nazarbayev began to fade. Over time, scandals related to Nursultan Nazarbayev began to be fully covered by journalists of “The New York Times”, changing the image of the president to an authoritarian and corrupt politician.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-70
Author(s):  
Harold Ivan Smith

Eleanor Roosevelt experienced demanding challenges following the unexpected death of her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the president of the United States, on April 12, 1945. That she was no longer first lady led to a series of secondary losses: the loss of status, the loss of staff, the loss of financial security, and, within a week, the loss of her primary residence, The White House. Her transition into “Widow Roosevelt” was complicated by her discovery that FDR had died in the presence of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, with whom he had had an affair during World War I. As a condition for staying married and having a political career, he agreed never to see Lucy again. The circumstances of FDR’s betrayal and death were kept secret for nearly two decades. A week after FDR’s death, Eleanor answered a question about her future by a New York Times reporter, with a tense, “The story is over.” However, Harry Truman, FDR’s successor, had other ideas and appointed her as a delegate to the United Nations. Over the next 17 years, Eleanor evolved into “First Lady of the World” and had a significant role in world affairs and American politics.


2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 90-98

On 7 March 2002, following a week of the most brutal occupation of Palestinian camps and towns that claimed around 90 Palestinian and 40 Israeli lives, the U nited States, under growing world pressure, decided to send its envoy, Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, back to Jerusalem to secure a cease-fire. Shortly thereafter, Pres. George W. Bush issued what the New York Times (15 March) called a "slap," "an unusually stern reprimand to Israel, saying its recent operations were 'not helpful' in creating conditions for peace." Prior to this rebuke, however, and starting from the spiraling violence that followed Israel's assassination of Hamas military leader Mahmud Abu Hanud on 23 November 2001, the United States was single-minded in its attribution of blame for the deteriorating situation to Palestinian Authority Leader Yasir Arafat. Some samples follow, excerpted from daily State Department and White House press briefings. The full texts are available on the State Department Web site at www.usinfo.state.gov.


2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fae Korsmo ◽  
Michael Sfraga

A comparison of why proposed science programs succeed or fail to attract public financial support in the American political arena, this article examines three cases ranging from the 1920s to the 1950s: a unique, multi-disciplinary proposal emerging from the U.S. Navy's 1924 conference on oceanography, U.S. participation in the Second International Polar Year of 1932-1933, and U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958. Each proposal emphasized societal benefits and applications of the earth, ocean, or atmospheric sciences. Each began from the bottom up, i.e., people trained and working in the scientific disciplines originated the idea and expressed their support through reports, letters, and participation in committees or conferences. However the proposals experienced different fates. While the promoters of the International Geophysical Year succeeded in gaining relatively substantial federal support, and the backers of the Second International Polar Year gained a modest amount, the U.S. Navy failed to persuade the Coolidge White House to request congressional appropriations for an oceanographic program. The concepts and tools from policy analysis can help to explain why the proposals experienced different outcomes.


Prospects ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 181-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard P. Segal

“Technology Spurs Decentralization Across the Country.” So reads a 1984 New York Times article on real-estate trends in the United States. The contemporary revolution in information processing and transmittal now allows large businesses and other institutions to disperse their offices and other facilities across the country, even across the world, without loss of the policy- and decision-making abilities formerly requiring regular physical proximity. Thanks to computers, word processors, and the like, decentralization has become a fact of life in America and other highly technological societies.


1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J. Annas ◽  
Frances H. Miller

American culture reflects a paradox: the more openly we discuss death and its inevitability, the more money we spend to postpone and deny it. Sherwin Nuland's book How We Die, a frank description of the way our bodies deteriorate with and without medical intervention, topped the New York Times best seller list in the spring of 1994. At the same time, Jack Kevorkian, arguably the world 's best known physician, was being acquitted of violating Michigan 's law against assisted suicide, while a Michigan commission was debating legislative changes to permit physicians to help their terminally ill patients kill themselves. Despite such open discussion of death and expansion of the informed consent doctrine, U.S. medical expenditures at the end of life remain astronomically high. Most of this elevated spending is attributable to new medical technology.In J.G. Ballard 's Empire of the Sun, the United States, British and Japanese cultures are contrasted through the eyes of a young British boy incarcerated by the Japanese army in China during World War II.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (105) ◽  
pp. 78-86
Author(s):  
EKATERINA A. NIKONOVA

The article deals with the analysis of the balance of opinion in the newspaper, which is originally realized through editorial and op-ed genres. We analyzed 20 articles from “The Wall Street Journal” and “The New York Times” in the genres of editorial and op-ed about events in Afghanistan in August 2021, which were interpreted differently in mass media due to the role of the White House. The findings prove that in the context of new digital reality the op-ed has lost its original function of conveying alternative positions to the ones stated in the editorial; at the same time newspapers tend to advocate the positions shared by the political parties they have historically developed close relations with: “The Wall Street Journal” - with the Republican Party, “The New York Times” - the Democratic Party.


1968 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-427
Author(s):  
Quentin L. Quade

In The issues of the New York Times from February, 1965, to November, 1967, religious leaders and groups are reported 185 times commenting on one political issue: Vietnam. If a comparable search were done on an inclusive list of political topics, such as civil rights, the number of citations would be greatly multiplied. Most of these statements are on substantive issues — the United States should do this, do that — rather than on the theoretical questions about religion's role vis à vis politics. Most of these religious interventions presume some connection between religion and politics, whether articulated or not. A similar examination of some leading religious journals, for example, Chrisianity and Crisis, Commonweal, Christian Century, America, produces similar results: in articles and editorials, such publications are deeply immersed in direct commentary on political problems of our time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinxiu Jin

The relationship among China, the United States and North Korea has already been a focus of international politics. From June 19 to 20, North Korea leader Kim Jong-un ended his third visit to China within 100 days. This is also his three consecutive visits to China since he took office in December 2011. The high density and frequency are not only rare in the history of China-DPRK relations, but also seem to be unique in the history of international relations, indicating that China-DPRK relations are welcoming new era. This paper selects the New York Times’ report on China-DPRK relations as an example, which is based on an attitudinal perspective of the appraisal theory to analyze American attitudes toward China. Attitudes are positive and negative, explicit and implicit. Whether the attitude is good or not depends on the linguistic meaning of expressing attitude. The meaning of language is positive, and the attitude of expression is positive; the meaning of language is negative, and the attitude of expression is negative. The study found that most of the attitude resources are affect (which are always negative affect), which are mainly realized through such means as lexical, syntactical and rhetorical strategies implicitly or explicitly. All these negative evaluations not only help construct a discourse mode for building the bad image of China but also are not good to China-DPRK relations. The United States wants to tarnish image of China and destroy the relationship between China and North Korea by its political news discourse.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Trautman

In November 2018, The New York Times ran a front-page story describing how Facebook concealed knowledge and disclosure of Russian-linked activity and exploitation resulting in Kremlin led disruption of the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections, through the use of global hate campaigns and propaganda warfare. By mid-December 2018, it became clear that the Russian efforts leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections were much more extensive than previously thought. Two studies conducted for the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), by: (1) Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika; and (2) New Knowledge, provide considerable new information and analysis about the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) influence operations targeting American citizens.By early 2019 it became apparent that a number of influential and successful high growth social media platforms had been used by nation states for propaganda purposes. Over two years earlier, Russia was called out by the U.S. intelligence community for their meddling with the 2016 American presidential elections. The extent to which prominent social media platforms have been used, either willingly or without their knowledge, by foreign powers continues to be investigated as this Article goes to press. Reporting by The New York Times suggests that it wasn’t until the Facebook board meeting held September 6, 2017 that board audit committee chairman, Erskin Bowles, became aware of Facebook’s internal awareness of the extent to which Russian operatives had utilized the Facebook and Instagram platforms for influence campaigns in the United States. As this Article goes to press, the degree to which the allure of advertising revenues blinded Facebook to their complicit role in offering the highest bidder access to Facebook users is not yet fully known. This Article can not be a complete chapter in the corporate governance challenge of managing, monitoring, and oversight of individual privacy issues and content integrity on prominent social media platforms. The full extent of Facebook’s experience is just now becoming known, with new revelations yet to come. All interested parties: Facebook users; shareholders; the board of directors at Facebook; government regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and Congress must now figure out what has transpired and what to do about it. These and other revelations have resulted in a crisis for Facebook. American democracy has been and continues to be under attack. This article contributes to the literature by providing background and an account of what is known to date and posits recommendations for corrective action.


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