2023-08-15 01:41:39
2023-08-15 09:41 Lianhe News Network Liao Qihong The movie “Oppenheimer” once again aroused the public’s attention and interest in nuclear weapons and the political history of World War II. Taiwan has been overturned in the past…
The “Oppenheimer” movie has swept the world recently, and early August marks the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Once again, it aroused public attention and interest in nuclear weapons and the political history of World War II.
In the 50 to 60 years since 1945, the United States has gradually ascended to the status of a military power on the world stage with a large amount of funds and nuclear weapons. During this period, the United States produced at least 70,000 nuclear warheads, far exceeding the output of other countries in the world combined. The establishment of such a disparity in military strength by the United States will of course require a large amount of military expenditure.according toWorld Bank estimatesIn the United States, from the 1960s to 2000, military expenditure accounted for an average of 6.2% of GDP, much higher than the 4.9% of the United Kingdom, 3.8% of Russia, 3.3% of France, and 2.9% of Germany. Not to mention that the U.S. spent about 15% of GDP on military from postwar to the 1960s, similarly blinding other countries to taillights.
There are a lot of discussions about the United States becoming a world military power after World War II, but most of these discussions are cut from the perspective of history and politics. Many economic and public finance tangents are missing. Since the United States must become a world military power through the process of investing a lot of money, why is there such a lack of discussion in this regard? There are two main reasons.
One reason is because of the secrecy of military spending.
Since 1947, the U.S. government has had a “black budget” item in the federal budget. It is a government budget that secretly allocates funds to state secrets or other secret operations. Except for items that are unknown to the public, the budget amount It is also highly confidential.The black budget allows many military development programs to be passed in secret, without the knowledge of the general public, or even members of Congress, and withoutFederal Access to Information Act(Freedom of Information Act), the public cannot see its content even if they ask to see it.
After World War II, this secret budget created many imaginary enemies in the country, claiming that there are many Communist Party members, so many military programs and expenditures must be kept top secret, not only the general public, but even those inside the government have no access to these materials.
The most far-reaching of these is thesenator mccarthyIn the 1950’s “Enemies from Within” (Enemies from Within)speech, declared vividly: “Those smart young people born with a silver spoon in their mouths are the most rebellious people. I have a list of 205 Communist Party members who work in the State Department. Even though the Secretary of State has been informed, they Still working at the State Department and formulating U.S. policy…” He smeared all voices that questioned and opposed him. This atmosphere thoroughly justifies the secrecy of special military budgets and hides much of military spending in black boxes.
Since ancient times, power that is not supervised is power that is not controlled. The biggest beneficiaries of the secrecy of military expenditures are the relevant members of Congress and the winning military industrial enterprises and groups. Not only can they evade accountability, but they can also take large sums of government funds openly. As long as the banner of secrecy is waved, the public will be silent. After all, it is related to the interests of the country, and keeping the military budget from being exposed is considered a patriotic act.
On October 15, 1965, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Museum displayed the “Fat Man” atomic bomb model, the US military…
The second reason is that the ultimate goal of the US strategy is to establish an “asymmetric balance.”
Asymmetric warfare (Asymmetric warfare) is a military term that refers to how two parties with disparity in military strength use their own advantages to gain the upper hand. Although the U.S. Department of Defense did not mention the concept of asymmetric warfare in official documents until 1997, it is not difficult to see from the actions of the United States in military development after World War II that the ultimate strategic goal of the United States and the solution to maintaining world peace are Let the United States become a military hegemony. As Churchill said: “We arm – to negotiate.” (We arm – to parley.)
existgame theoryIn the two-party competition model, if one party is super strong, the weaker party will be forced to choose avoidance of war as the only response because of the huge loss expected in the war. This mentality appears in many speeches and documents of World War II and after. In 1945,president truman(Harry Truman) tocongressional speechIt was pointed out that:
“We must persevere in maintaining our superiority on land, sea and air until we ensure that the peace machinery is fully functional.”
Such a strategy has continued to dominate U.S. military spending from World War II to the present.
For both of these reasons, nuclear weapons spending and other related military budgets are opaque and rarely questioned, but today, according to the 2009 President Barack ObamaExecutive Order 13526a lot of national security information that was originally classified as classified is automatically declassified after the 25-year maximum confidentiality period expires. We can finally see how the United States continued to develop nuclear weapons after the end of the Manhattan Project in World War II and gradually became a military power in the world. .
This also allows scholars to further examine how much money the United States spent on the Manhattan Project and nuclear weapons research and development in the next 50 years? Will these expenditures have an impact on the country’s finances, currency, and inflation? Are these spending crowding out other social benefits and social safety nets?
The strategy of ensuring absolute superiority in land, sea and air has continued to dominate U.S. military spending from World War II to the present. Figure / Unit…
▌”Cost-effective” Manhattan Project
manhattan project(Manhattan Project) is a military project that developed mankind’s first nuclear weapon during World War II. It is led by the United States and assisted by the United Kingdom and Canada.designing the atomic bombLos Alamos National Laboratory(Los Alamos National Lab) by nuclear physicistsrobert oppenheimer(Julius Robert Oppenheimer) is in charge.
In August 1945, the U.S. military sent B-29 bombers to Japan and dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.“little boy”(little boy) and“Fatty”(fat man) two atomic bombs, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and extensive damage to buildings. Not only did it let the whole world see its power, it also made Japan, which was at the end of its strength at that time, surrender.
According to US estimates at the time, nuclear weapons were a relatively “cost-effective” investment.According to the Brookings Institutionthe estimated cost of the Manhattan Project (calculated in 1996 currency) was about 20 billion U.S. dollars, of which more than 90% were spent on building factories, producingFragmentable substanceIn fact, less than 10% is used in the research and development and production of weapons.
For comparison, all explosives, landmines, and explosive devices during World War II were about 31.5 billion U.S. dollars, other non-ammunition military expenditures were 24 billion U.S. dollars, tanks were 64 billion U.S. dollars, and other artillery shell devices were 33.6 billion U.S. dollars. In comparison, the 20 billion spent on research and development of nuclear weapons is not the most; and proportionally speaking, the Manhattan Project probably accounted for less than 0.5% of the US GDP from 1940 to 1945. If only in terms of finally achieving the original intention of “ending the war” research and development, the 20 billion can be said to be quite a “cost-effective”.
▌The next part continues: “American “War Economics” (Part 2): How much does it cost to maintain world peace? >
The Los Alamos National Laboratory, which designed and built the atomic bomb, was headed by nuclear physicist Oppenheimer.Photo / Associated Press
Editor / Lai Yun
Liao Qihong
Chief of California State Government Research, Visiting Professor of the Department of Economics, University of California.host“One mouthful economics”PODCAST. Living in Northern California for many years, a family of three plus a prodigal Bagel adopted from Taiwan, the peace of mind is my hometown.
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