No, not Sam Cohen, the theater agent. Samuel T. Cohen, inventor of the neutron bomb. The other one may have been involved with bombs, but it was never intentional. According to the obituary by Robert McFadden (NYT 11/2/10) Samuel T. Cohen died at his home this past Sunday at the age of 89. He is survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren. The irony is that he devoted his life to making sure there were no survivors. The weapon he created, unlike other bombs, was designed to kill people and leave buildings unharmed.
Born in Brooklyn to Jenny and Lazarus Cohen, Sam could, given his father’s name, be excused for thinking that death was not a permanent condition. His father, however, was a Jewish carpenter and, as a group, they tend to be peaceful. More “Turn the other cheek” than, say, “Lock and load.” His mother discouraged young Samuel from breathing through his mouth, believing it was unhealthy. She also forced to him to take daily ice-water showers to toughen him up. She was, in the words of Raymond Chandler, “Crazier than two waltzing mice.” Yet so are a lot of Jewish mothers and they have completely normal children. (Don’t ask me how I know.)
After graduating from UCLA and MIT, Samuel Cohen was chosen to work on the Manhattan Project, where he helped design the nuclear bomb that destroyed Nagasaki. You might think that incinerating civilians would have turned him into a life-long pacifist like Leo Szilard, the project’s founder, or Jacob Bronowski, who switched from mathematics to life sciences after witnessing it’s aftermath. Instead, it acted like an atomic appetizer.
In 1947, Cohen joined the RAND Corporation, a hothouse for Cold War strategy. He bloomed in its atmosphere of overheated speculation and in 1958, while serving as a consultant to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he designed the neutron bomb. Although “Many technical features of what the Pentagon called an ‘enhanced radiation weapon’ had been known for years, and scientists had theorized about a nuclear device that would release most of its energy as radiation” it took Sam Cohen to see the possibilities. (Insert “killer app” joke of your choice.) His patient cultivating bore fruit when the military successfully tested the neutron bomb. (Atomic testing is easy, you just blow the crap out of a bunch of dummies. How do you test a weapon that leaves structures untouched while killing every living thing in its path? Wouldn’t that require . . . living things? Hmmm.)
In 1969, five hundred thousand people marched for peace in Washington, D.C. Anti-war sentiment even breached the walls of the RAND Corporation. One of their top military analysts was suffering crushing doubts about his chosen profession. That’s right, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked “The Pentagon Papers.” Samuel Cohen left that year to insure the future of his deadly invention. “. . . he relentlessly promoted the neutron bomb for most of his life, writing books and articles, conferring with presidents and cabinet officials, taking his case to Congressional committees, scientific bodies and international forums.” He also defended it when necessary. “Mr. Cohen called his bomb a ‘sane’ and ‘moral’ weapon . . . He insisted that many critics misunderstood or purposely misrepresented his ideas for political, economic or mercenary reasons.” (Mercenary in the sense of greedy and materialistic. Not, obviously, being paid to kill someone.) As an advocate, Samuel Cohen was operating outside his area of expertise. Fortunately – for the world –he was lousy at it.
“Washington rejected the bomb repeatedly. The Kennedy administration said it might jeopardize a test-ban moratorium. The Johnson administration said it’s use might raise the specter of Hiroshima – Asians again slaughtered by American nuclear bombs – drawing worldwide condemnation. President Jimmy Carter said development might impede disarmament prospects. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan ordered 700 nuclear warheads built to oppose Soviet tank forces in Europe . . . But deployment to the North Atlantic alliance was cancelled after a storm of antinuclear protest across Europe. President George Bush ordered the stockpile scrapped.” Was it Cohen’s fault for failing to convince them or did events conspire against him? Who cares? The neutron bomb was neutered.
Did Samuel T. Cohen experience any regrets about his devotion to death? Apparently not – although he many chances to do so. He lived a long time and went to his own death untroubled – except for one thing. The neutron bomb was never accepted into any of the world’s arsenals. His entire career as a bomb designer was, ultimately, a dud.
