IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB198141177

Die „saubere“ Atombombe. Die Bedeutung der Neutronenwaffe als Projektionsﬂ äche im Kalten Krieg (The “Clean” Atomic Bomb. The Signiﬁcance of Neutron Weaponry as a Projection Screen during the Cold War) (2019)

Technikgeschichte: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie
Volume: 86
Issue: 4
Pages: 297-332
Publication date: 2019
Language: German

DOI: 10.5771/0040-117X-2019-4-297

URI: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/index.php?doi=10.5771/0040-117X-2019-4-297

Publication Date: 2019
Edition Details: Issue Theme: Technik und Militär [Technology and the Military]

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Technology and politics Public opinion Technology and society Cold War Propaganda Development of technology; change in technology Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons Neutron bomb 20th century Soviet Union Germany United States

Die umgangssprachlich als „Neutronenbombe“ bezeichnete Enhanced Radiation Weapon war von Ende der 1970er bis Beginn der 1980er Jahre eines der zentralen Themen der sicherheitspolitischen Debatte. Während die zeithistorische Forschung die Neutronenwaffe bislang nur in geringem Maße und mit einem Fokus auf die diplomatischen Auseinandersetzungen über ihre Produktion bearbeitet hat, argumentiert dieser Beitrag, dass die Neutronen- waffendebatte einen eigenen Forschungsgegenstand darstellt. Die für Laien schwer verständliche Wirkungsweise der Neutronenwaffe, kombiniert mit einer frühzeitig einsetzenden Propaganda gegen ihre Produktion, trug maßgeblich dazu bei, dass sich die neue Waffentechnik zu einer Projektionsfläche im Kalten Krieg entwickelte. Dadurch avancierte die „Neutronenbombe“ für einige Jahre zu einem zentralen Symbol für Technikängste und Modernitätskritik, das zusätzlich anschlussfähig an antiamerikanische, antimilitaristische und antikapitalistische Motive war. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird im Beitrag die Rolle, die die Auseinandersetzung mit der Neutronenwaffe für die Friedens- und Umweltbewegung und innerhalb der Populärkultur spielte, analysiert. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf dem Zusammenhang zwischen der Vermittlung neuer Waffentechniken von Seiten der Politik und des Militärs und deren Akzeptanz in der Zivilbevölkerung. [The Enhanced Radiation Weapon, colloquially referred to as the “neutron bomb,” was a central topic in the public debate on international security from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. While historical research has only marginally dealt with the neutron bomb so far, placing its focus on diplomatic disputes about its production, this article argues that the neutron weapon debate itself constitutes a separate subject of research. The complicated mode of operation of the neutron bomb, difficult for ordinary people to understand, combined with a propaganda campaign against its production contributed significantly toward the new weapons technology developing into a projection screen during the Cold War. As a result, the “neutron bomb” became a central symbol for the fear of technology and critique of modernity for several years, which was also compatible with antiamericanism, antimilitarism and anticapitalism. Against this background, this article analyzes the role of the debate about neutron weapons in the peace and environmental movements and in popular culture. Emphasis will be placed on the public transmission of information about new weapons technologies by politicians and the military and their acceptance among the civilian population.]

...More

Included in

Article Christian Kehrt (2019) Einleitung. Zur Wahrnehmungsgeschichte von Militärtechnik (Introduction. On the history of perception of military technology). Technikgeschichte: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie (pp. 269-280). unapi

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB198141177

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Henry Richard Maar III; (2022)
Freeze!: The Grassroots Movement to Halt the Arms Race and End the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB798931618/)

Article Jameson, Robert P.; (2013)
Armageddon's Shortening Fuse: How Advances in Nuclear Weapons Technology Pushed Strategists to Mutually Assured Destruction, 1945--1962 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001212162/)

Book Monteyne, David; (2011)
Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001212463/)

Book Susan Colbourn; (2022)
Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO (/p/isis/citation/CBB508430688/)

Book Hornblum, Allen M.; (2010)
The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb (/p/isis/citation/CBB001231467/)

Book Hoffman, David E.; (2009)
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (/p/isis/citation/CBB001231458/)

Book Edward Kaplan; (2015)
To Kill Nations: American Strategy in the Air-Atomic Age and the Rise of Mutually Assured Destruction (/p/isis/citation/CBB468361992/)

Book Siegfried S. Hecker; (2016)
Doomed to Cooperate: How American and Russian Scientists Joined Forces to Avert Some of the Greatest Post-Cold War Nuclear Dangers (/p/isis/citation/CBB152427066/)

Book Elisabetta Bini; Elisabetta Vezzosi; (2020)
Scienziati e guerra fredda: Tra collaborazione e diritti umani (/p/isis/citation/CBB957549150/)

Book Goodman, Michael S.; (2007)
Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb (/p/isis/citation/CBB001020723/)

Book John Krige; (2016)
Sharing Knowledge, Shaping Europe: US Technological Collaboration and Nonproliferation (/p/isis/citation/CBB063673258/)

Book Hargittai, Istvan; (2010)
Judging Edward Teller (/p/isis/citation/CBB001023155/)

Book Hecht, Gabrielle; (2011)
Entangled geographies: Empire and technopolitics in the global Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001181568/)

Book Nicholas Michael Sambaluk; (2015)
The Other Space Race: Eisenhower and the Quest for Aerospace Security (/p/isis/citation/CBB873284440/)

Book Craig, Campbell; Radchenko, Sergey; (2008)
The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001035577/)

Book Melosi, Martin V.; (2013)
Atomic Age America (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213741/)

Chapter James T. Andrews; (2016)
Inculcating Materialist Minds: Scientific Propaganda and Anti-Religion in the USSR During the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB394122030/)

Article Simo Mikkonen; (2020)
Interference or friendly gestures? Soviet cultural diplomacy and Finnish elections, 1945–56 (/p/isis/citation/CBB952405614/)

Book Brown, Kate; (2013)
Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (/p/isis/citation/CBB001212054/)

Article Boyle, Ryan; (2008)
A Red Moon over the Mall: The Sputnik Panic and Domestic America (/p/isis/citation/CBB001030977/)