THE DAY WE BOMBED UTAH

by John G. Fuller ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1984

Reheated outrage. As even the readers of People magazine know, fallout from AEC nuclear tests in the 1950s and early '60s caused widespread destruction of sheep and doomed many exposed persons to excruciating cancer deaths. Victims apparently included, besides local residents, the cast and crew of the movie, The Conqueror, filmed in the area: as People magazine found out, not only did notables Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Dick Powell, and John Wayne die of cancer, but an extraordinary number of others in the company were affected. How the AEC prevaricated during the testing, and the lengths to which it subsequently went to deny responsibility, have also become widely known. Disclosure of suppressed information in the late '70s--through newspaper investigations and congressional hearings--did indeed, as Fuller writes, ""leave the AEC, and its successor, the Department of Energy, stripped bare."" Fuller--a veteran chronicler of natural and unnatural disasters (We Almost Lost Detroit, The Poison That Fell From the Sky, The Airmen Who Would Not Die, etc.)--tells the story broadly and loosely, with hokey dramatics and no documentation. The text is bulked out with pretrial and trial reports--which do illustrate the pattern of cover-up, from evasions downward. ""The AEC answer to Interrogatory number 31 was an outright lie. They had no recourse but to stonewall. A truthful response might have seriously damaged their case. To the question, 'were any sheep examined considered to be. . . evincing abnormal radioactivity?', the AEC's response was a blunt NO."" The sheep-owners' case has been reopened, and a class-action on behalf of the affected residents has been filed by Stewart Udall. If the whole affair makes news again, this choppy, pappy account may have a brief life. Anyone concerned with the radiation problem, however, should instead see the coverage in Killing Our Own, by Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon.

Pub Date: April 25, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New American Library

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION