Document II-1

Document title: Louis N. Ridenour, "Pilot Lights of the Apocalypse: A Playlet in One Act,” Fortune, Vol. 33, January 1946.

This brief "playlet" offered the first public account of an intercontinental nuclear war directed from underground command centers and conducted using space-based weapons. Written by Louis Ridenour, a physicist who helped develop radar technology at MIT's Radiation Laboratory during World War II, it appeared in print just five months after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Concern over a nuclear surprise attack led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to propose "Open Skies" and establish a national policy (with the intent to promote an international precedent) of "freedom of space." That policy and subsequent precedent permitted the United States to employ without contest early warning satellites and other Earthorbiting observation systems.

Pilot Lights of the Apocalypse

A Playlet in One Act

by Louis N. Ridenour

Louis N. Ridenour wrote "Military Security and the Atomic Bomb" in the November issue of Fortune, attacking the notion that the U.S. could achieve "security by concealment" of its scientific knowledge of atomic power. Since then the principle underlying his view seems to have been incorporated in Anglo-American policy. Dr. Ridenour, a nuclear physicist and a professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania, went to M.I.T.'s Radiation Laboratory four years ago and helped develop radar weapons there. He believes that while “security by achievement" may determine any victory, the difference between victor and vanquished in a war fought with atomic power would be merely a few percentiles of obliteration. And he fears that such a war will be inescapable if there is an atomic armaments race, since the slightest error, such as often occurs when men under great tension become trigger-happy, would touch off stupendous destruction.

Dr. Ridenour has not tried to write a fantasy; he has tried to put into the form of a grim playlet the sober conclusions to which he feels driven by knowledge of physics, weapons, and human behavior. His moral: we should do all that decently can be done to avoid an atomic-armaments race.

What that "all" may be, he does not, as a natural scientist, attempt to define. Further definition

is the job of social scientists, statesmen, philosophers, and citizens.

The curtain rises to disclose the operations room of the Western Defense Command, somewhere in the San Francisco area and a hundred feet underground. Two sergeants, RIGHT, are tending a row of teletype machines that connect the room with the world's principal cities. Two others, REAR, sit before a sort of telephone switchboard with key switches, lights, and labels representing the world's major cities. Behind them stands a captain. At a large desk, CENTER, sit a brigadier general and two colonels, all reading teletype messages. The wall, LEFT, has a sturdy barred door, a world map, and a framed motto: "Remember Pearl Harbor."

TIME: Some years after all the industrialized nations have mastered the production and use of atomic power.

BRIGADIER (laying down the message he has been reading): Nothing much tonight, I'd say. We'd better get tidied up a little. Captain Briggs!

CAPTAIN (facing about and standing at attention): Yes, sir.

BRIGADIER: Ready for company?

CAPTAIN: Yes, sir. I think so, sir.

BRIGADIER: See that the men look busy-on their toes and busy.

CAPTAIN: Yes, sir. (A bell rings.) Schwartz, you get the door. (One of the sergeants crosses to the door and opens it. All stand rigidly at attention. A little confused, the sergeant goes through the formality of examining passes. He then admits a group of four: a four-star general, a major, and two civilians.)

GENERAL: Carry on. (The men relax. The General leads the two civilians over to the Brigadier and the Colonels. The Major takes up his station by the door. Nobody pays any attention to him.) Mr. President, this is General Anderson, Watch Officer in charge of the Operations Room.

THE PRESIDENT: How do you do?

BRIGADIER: How do you do, Sir? (They shake hands.)

GENERAL: Colonel Sparks and Colonel Peabody, Deputy Watch Officers on duty.

THE PRESIDENT: Glad to meet you both. (They shake hands.)

GENERAL: Dr. Thompson-General Anderson, Colonel Sparks, and Colonel Peabody. (All nod and smile.) Now, Mr. President, this is the nerve center of our counterattack organization for the western area. The teletype machines you see over there (pointing) are on radio circuits that connect us with our people in all the principal cities of the world, and with the other continental defense commands. The stations, and their statuses, are marked on the map. (He gestures toward the map.) We've just come from the defense center, where the radar plots are kept and the guns and the fighters controlled. That's defense. But this is counterattack. Along that wall (waving toward the rear) is our control board. If you'll step over here, sir, I'll show you how it works.

THE PRESIDENT (moving with the General toward the telephone switchboard against the back wall): Defense and counterattack, eh? Why keep them separate?

GENERAL: Well, the defense has to move quickly, or it's no good at all. They don't have time to think. But counterattack—well, counterattack has to move quickly, too. But we want them to have time to decide what they need to do. You can't tell just from the direction of an attack who launched it. An attack might be staged entirely by mines planted inside our borders, so there wouldn't be any direction connected with it. And then again, we have pretty good information that some other countries besides us have got bombs up above the stratosphere, 800 miles above the earth, going round us in orbits like little moons. We put up 2,000 and we can see about 5,400 on our radar. Any time, somebody can call down that odd 3,400 by radio and send them wherever they want. There's no telling from trajectory which nation controls those bombs. What this all means is that the data these fellows here have to go on is mainly political. Radar doesn't do them any good. What they need is intelligence, and that's what comes in all the time, as complete and up-to-date as we can get it on the teletypes. In the defense center, you saw scientists and technicians. The officers here are political scientists.

THE PRESIDENT: That's very interesting. Maybe you'll give me a job here if I ever need one. I'm a political scientist.

GENERAL (laughing just enough): Yes, sir!

THE PRESIDENT: General, you haven't told me what all these gadgets are for. (He waves toward the switchboard.)

GENERAL: No, sir, I haven't. This is our counterattack control board. You see that every station is marked with the name of a city. And every station has three pilot lights: red, yellow, and green.

THE PRESIDENT: All the green ones are on.

GENERAL: That's right, sir. We have unattended radio transmitters, each with three spares, in stations in every city covered on this board. If one of the transmitters goes on the blink, a spare is automatically switched on. But if all four transmitters in any station are destroyed, well, we lose the signal from that station. When that happens the green light goes out and the yellow light comes on.

THE PRESIDENT: How about the red light?

GENERAL: That comes on instead of the yellow when all our stations in the whole city go off the air. Yellow means partial destruction-red means substantially complete destruction.

THE PRESIDENT: And green means peace.

GENERAL: Yes, sir. But this isn't just a monitoring board. You see this key here?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

GENERAL: That sets off our mines. We have them planted in a great many cities, and the radio control circuit can be unlocked from here.

THE PRESIDENT: Is the whole world mined now?

GENERAL: Well, no. We haven't bothered much with Asia. And some countries are so hard to get into that coverage is spotty. Our schedule calls for completion of mine installations in two more years. But we have another card to play. You remember I told you about the satellite bombs-the ones that are circling around, 800 miles up?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

GENERAL: Well, this other key here will bring them down on the city shown on the marker— we are looking at Calcutta—one of those satellite bombs every time it is pressed.

THE PRESIDENT: Is one of those bombs earmarked for each particular city?

GENERAL: No, sir. The bomb that happens to be in the most favorable location at the time this key is pressed is the one brought down. It might be any one of the whole 2,000. THE PRESIDENT: This is all damned clever.

GENERAL: We have Dr. Thompson to thank for most of it. His people worked out all the technical stuff. All the Army has to do is man the installations and watch the intelligence as it comes along.

DR. THOMPSON: Good of you to say that, General. But seriously, Mr. President, as people

pointed out soon after the first atomic bomb was dropped, there isn't any other nation with the industrial know-how to do a job like this.

THE PRESIDENT: It's very impressive, I must say. Are the other Defense Commands equipped the same way?

GENERAL: Yes, sir. As a matter of fact, to guard against accidents, each Defense Command has two complete operations rooms like this, either one of which can take full control if the other is destroyed.

THE PRESIDENT: We've kept ahead in the armaments race. Who'd dare attack us when we're set up like this?

DR. THOMPSON: Surely nobody would. I don't think you need to expect any

trouble.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, this has all been very interesting. (To the Brigadier) General, have you had any exciting times here you can tell me about?

BRIGADIER: Yes, sir. Every time a meteorite comes down-a shooting star, you know-our radar boys track it, shoot it down, and send us in an alert. We have a few bad moments until we get the spectrographic report. If it's iron and nickel-and it always has been so far—we know God sent it, and relax. Someday it'll be uranium, and then we'll have to push a button. Or plutonium.

THE PRESIDENT: How many shooting stars have you shot?

COLONEL SPARKS (laughing politely): We get an average of twelve a month. In August it's the worst, of course. The Perseids, you know.

THE PRESIDENT (puzzled): Iran. . . ?

BRIGADIER (hastily): No, sir. The Perseid meteors. Named after Perseus. Astronomers are a classical bunch.

THE PRESIDENT (recovering): Oh, sure. (Turning to the Colonels) Gentlemen, how do you like this job?

COLONEL SPARKS: We have a feeling of grave responsibility.

THE PRESIDENT: The fate of the nation is in your hands. But always remember that our nation is the most precious.

BOTH COLONELS (awed): Yes, sir.

GENERAL: Well, Mr. President. We've fallen a little behind our schedule. They'll be waiting for us at the mess.

THE PRESIDENT: All right, General, let's get along. General Anderson, Colonel Sparks, Colonel Peabody, I've enjoyed very much seeing your installation. Keep on your toes. We're all depending on you.

GENERAL AND COLONELS (together): Yes, sir.

(Schwartz goes over, opens the door, and stands stiffly at attention as the visitors file out amid a general chorus of "Goodbye" and "Goodbye, sir." Schwartz closes the door. The Brigadier and Colonels sit at their desks.)

BRIGADIER: Well, that's that. The Old Man gave him a good story; I couldn't have done better myself.

COLONEL SPARKS (still in the clouds): He is depending on us.

BRIGADIER: Don't take it too hard. All we're supposed to do is make the other guy sorry. We can't save any lives or rebuild any cities. Never forget what those buttons do.

COLONEL SPARKS: Just the same, sir, I'm glad I was born an American. We've got the know-how. I'm glad I'm on the side that's ahead in the race.

COLONEL PEABODY (disgusted): Sparks, you talk like a damn high-school kid. For this job, you're supposed to have some good sense and detachment.

(Just then, there is a dull rumble. The floor and the walls of the room shake, and a couple of sizable chunks of concrete fall out of the ceiling. The lights go out, except for the green ones on the control board. Emergency lights, dimmer than the regular ones, come on at once. All the men are on their feet.)

BRIGADIER: Good God! What was that? (Recollecting himself) Peabody, get on the phone to headquarters. Sparks, get out the red-line messages for the last twenty-four hours. Captain, anything from the defense center?

CAPTAIN: My line to them seems to be out, sir.

BRIGADIER: What have you got for status? Anybody showing yellow or red?

CAPTAIN: San Francisco is red, sir.

COLONEL SPARKS (riffling wildly through teletype messages): Oh, Jesus. This must be it. San Francisco! (Screaming) San Francisco gone!

BRIGADIER: Shut up, Sparks. Take it easy. (To Peabody) Can't you get headquarters?

COLONEL PEABODY: My line is dead. I can't get reserve operations, either. Maybe this is the real thing.

COLONEL SPARKS (still half hysterical): We better do something. Remember what it says in the book: counterattack must take action before the enemy's destruction of our centers is complete.

BRIGADIER: First we need an enemy. Who's got the highest negative rating in the latest State Department digest?

COLONEL PEABODY (who has quietly taken the messages from in front of Sparks): Denmark, sir. But it's well below the danger point. All we've got is this: (reading) COPENHAGEN 1635 HOURS 22 JANUARY. WIDESPREAD DISAPPROVAL OF WILLIAMS FOUNTAIN, STATUARY GROUP PRESENTED THE KING DENMARK BY THE U.S., BEING SHOWN BY PEOPLE COPENHAGEN. FOUNTAIN HAS BEEN PELTED VEGETABLES BY HOODLUM GROUPS THREE OCCASIONS. FORMAL PROTEST STATING STATUE INSULTS KING RECEIVED FROM ROYAL ACADEMY ART IN FOLLOWING TERMS QUOTE...and so on. Nothing there, I'd say.

COLONEL SPARKS: Nothing there! San Francisco's in ruins, you damn fool, and we're sitting here like three warts on a pickle. All that over a lousy set of statues. I say let'em have it.