Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll [Hardcover]

Jonathan M. Weisgall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1994

Recounts the many controversies surrounding the two atomic test explosions at Bikini Atoll in 1946.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on a wealth of previously untapped material, this comprehensive examination of the world's first nuclear disaster is the first account of the Bikini atomic test explosions from a nongovernment source. Weisgall reconstructs the air-dropped "Able" test and the underwater "Baker" test, both conducted in July 1946, and explains how the sites were determined from a bitter rivalry between the Navy and the Air Force, how the tests affected U.S.-Soviet relations and why there was a scientific failure. In light of the current attention on U.S. government radiation experiments on humans and the postwar cover-up of nuclear-weapons testing, Weisgall's study is timely as well as chilling. He charges that the Navy ignored warnings about the dire consequences of radioactive fallout which, during the Operation Crossroads tests, blanketed 95 guinea-pig ships with deadly radiation and sunk 16 of them at Bikini lagoon. Finally, he relates the sad saga of the Bikinians who were relocated several times before and after the tests, which turned their atoll in the Ratok chain of the Marshall Islands into a laboratory of death. An attorney in Washington, D.C., and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Weisgall has represented the people of Bikini in suits against the U.S. government since 1975. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The author of this comprehensive study of the 1946 nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll began his association with the matter as an attorney for displaced atoll inhabitants seeking to return home. His is a notably insightful and balanced treatment of a complex and controversial subject, individual aspects of which--e.g., the fates of individual ships and the radiation exposure of U.S. sailors--have been treated before. Weisgall, however, pulls everything together from a comprehensive base of research, and he adds a considerable amount of new material, such as the revelation that the second test was necessary largely because the air force had dropped the first bomb quite far off target. A highly valuable addition to nuclear affairs and postwar military studies. Roland Green

Product Details

• Hardcover: 415 pages
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557509190
• ISBN-13: 978-1557509192
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #784,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > History > Australia & Oceania > Marshall Islands

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weisgall is par excellence on his documentation, March 21, 2000

By 

Bill Denert - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (Hardcover)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chilling Look at the Dawn of the Cold War, February 15, 2001

By 

Nagato (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding account of the early atomic tests, February 9, 2000

By 

Bill Denert - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (Hardcover)

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.