Nukespeak

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Nukespeak is a book co-authored by Rory O'Connor about the history of how American nuclear technology was "sold" to the public.

The preface charges that:

"the history of nuclear development has been profoundly shaped by the manipulation of information. Official secrecy and extensive public-relations campaigns ... and the use of information-management techniques have consistently distorted the debate over nuclear weapons and nuclear power."

For example, it details how four different press releases were prepared to describe the Manhattan Project's first test explosion "based on a lie to keep the story of the first atomic explosion out of the press". ^[1]

[edit] Criticism

Rod D. Martin wrote:

Published by the Sierra Club, written by a trio of left-wing environmentalists shortly after Three Mile Island, Nukespeak doesn't pretend to be anything but the polemic it is, a book-length tract for the anti-nuclear movement (which, at the time of writing, was gearing up for the "Nuclear Freeze" movement as well). That the political agenda is so heavyhanded forces this reviewer to give the book only two stars; however, it must be noted that Nukespeak contains an excellent history of what it terms "the selling of nuclear technology in America" and it definitely added to the debate in its time. The problem is that this excellent history is presented with such overwhelming bias that there is no way to discern what is really true from the all-encompassing propaganda. This is not a scholarly book. If you don't like nuclear plants, though, this is definitely a treasure-trove of talking points. ^[2]

Commentary magazine wrote:

"...it not only makes no pretense to objectivity, its authors and compilers seem to believe they can destroy the nuclear power movement magically, by incantation." ^[3]