Atomic Member No. 4

For the first time in 16 months, a nuclear cloud columned up and spread its cauliflower shape above the earth.

At 6:30 one morning a robot control, operated by perforated tape, was set in motion to trigger an explosion atop a 300-ft. latticed steel pylon in the North African desert. The eye-melting flash turned the sky into brighter-than-day, and a mountain range on the horizon was illuminated like a stage setting. As the shock wave rolled outward, two men in Hammoudia blockhouse ten miles away were thrown on their faces. With this nuclear bang, set off last week in the heart of the Sahara, France shouldered its way into the world Atomic Club, as Member No. 4.

Dead Calm. The usually reserved President Charles de Gaulle cried "Hurrah for France!" and cabled ecstatically: "Since this morning she is prouder and stronger!" Proud French officials said that weather conditions had been almost ideal in the red rock and sand testing area of Reggan, some 750 miles southwest of Algiers, lying near an ancient caravan route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Niger River.

It was dead calm at ground level, but above 10,000 ft., 60-m.p.h. winds caused a quick dispersal of high-altitude radioactivity. French patrols had already fanned out through the region, rounding up some 300 nomad tribesmen. Before the shot, radar screens swept land and air, watching for any movement that might indicate endangered humans. Because of the direction of the winds at the time, the French said there was little chance of fallout blowing toward inhabited areas.

"African Butcher." Only France seemed to get pleasure out of its big bang. Japan and Morocco prepared formal protests. From Nasser's United Arab Republic came the cry: "The government which has acted as a butcher in Algeria is now trying to act as a butcher for all Africa." Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah of the West African state of Ghana dramatically ordered the freezing of French assets (estimated at $14 million) until possible effects of the explosion on the Ghanaian population are known. Nigeria found it necessary to post security guards around the French embassy.

The most curious official reaction came from the U.S., which had provided no help and sent no observers. The U.S. State Department was unable to bring itself to congratulate an ally on its technical achievement, would say only in a one-sentence statement that the event was not "unexpected." With whom this squeamish reticence was supposed to win favor was not indicated. Great Britain remained officially dumb as well, although the opposition Labor Party denounced the French. Unlike Red China ("a defiance of world opinion") and East Germany ("an atomic crime!"), the Soviet Union merely expressed its "regret" in tones that indicated more sorrow than anger. On a visit to India, Red Boss Nikita Khrushchev took the Sahara detonation in stride, remarked casually that he still believed "France and President de Gaulle also want a relaxation in tensions."

Road to Glory. To world scientists the French bomb was simply the 29th to have been exploded in the past 15 years, and a small and fairly primitive one at that. But for Frenchmen the cauliflower cloud in the desert represents another stride forward on the Gaullist road to glory, which had lately been called into question by France's incapacity to govern in Algeria. Officials boast of more tests to come. A plant at Toulouse for the production of heavy water is regarded as being "a step in the direction of detonating a fiery hydrogen bomb." A communique of the Gaullist U.N.R. Party appeared to speak for all of France: "In the world of tomorrow, the real independence of a nation rests essentially on the mastery of atomic energy. Thanks to the explosion at Reggan, we can rejoice that France is a great power in every respect."

It might be an oddity of the 20th century, but it is also a fact that a nation's status is measured in such terms. To those who criticized France for so expensive and negative a way of pursuing power, De Gaulle countered by saying he could not understand why France should be singled out for criticism, while three other nations were stockpiling the nuclear capacity to destroy life on earth. At a press conference last November, he referred skeptically to the historic fickleness of all alliances, and added: "One can well imagine on some terrible occasion Western Europe being annihilated from Moscow and Central Europe from Washington [while each of the two great antagonists decides] not to launch its weapons against its main adversary so as not to be threatened itself." Therefore, insisted Charles de Gaulle, France "is rendering a service to the balance of the world." A similar argument can be expected from whoever becomes Atomic Power No. 5.

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