Now or Never?

The Navy's Operation Crossroads, in tended to be a test, was turning into a battle instead.

Some civilian scientists were flatly calling the project a put-up job. (Said one: "It's a ridiculous test. The Navy men will prove either that our Navy is safe from attack or that we need a new Navy.") Others asked suspiciously: why was the Navy planning to use the old, outmoded Nagasaki model, instead of an improved bomb now possible?

Before Bomb No. 1 was exploded in New Mexico, scientists spent more than a year designing, building and installing instruments and recording gadgets. For the immensely more complicated problem of an overwater test, these would all have to be rebuilt and new ones contrived. Even with the backlog of experience from the first test, could this be done by March?

The military planners had their own interservice wranglings. The Navy wanted the target ships in open formation; the Air Forces wanted a closed formation to increase the destruction. But against the concerted civilian assault, the services formed a solid front--despite all obstacles, the tests should go ahead on schedule. A delay of only a few weeks might force postponement until next year, because of unpredictable weather conditions in the Marshalls after July. The test might never come off--further postponement could always be urged on the ground of bigger bombs or better instruments just around the corner.

In the heat of the battle, harried Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy, boss of Operation Crossroads, scheduled a press conference for 4 p.m. one day last week. He was going to announce the names of the military men and civilian scientists who would sit in judgment on the results. But before 10 o'clock that morning a call went to the Navy Department from the White House. The President wanted the announcement delayed. He was going to appoint an all-civilian board of his own.

Whether this board would be merely a substitute for the services' evaluation board, or a presidential commission with authority to run the whole show, it looked like a victory for the scientists. Almost certainly the new board would include some of the most vigorous critics of military preparations for the test.*

* For news of disgruntled U.S. scientists, and why they are, see SCIENCE.

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