The myths of August - A personal exploration of our tragic cold war affair with the atom

Abstract

This is a devastating - but in end hopeful - expose of America's atomic adventures from Hiroshima to present, written by a former congressman, Secretary of Interior, and longtime lawyer for victims of radiation exposure. With Hiroshima, atomic age was born. But for an untold number of Americans, brave new world that it was supposed to usher in became instead a world in which war, disease, and unnecessary death were common. In name of safeguarding nation from Soviets, United States knowingly exposed millions of its citizens to toxic radiation. Stewart Udall was one of first lawyers to champion cause of these Americans, and this extraordinary book is a result of that work. He takes us into deserts where tests were conducted, and to ranches and towns where fallout killed thousands of animals and triggered epidemics of childhood leukemia. He introduces us to widows of Navajo men who developed cancer while mining uranium. He illuminates ways in which the cold warriors' contempt for restraint poisoned our nation's politics as it poisoned its people. He reveals human face associated with arms race, and suggests how, with candor and just compensation, we can hasten country's return to principles that have always been its definition.

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