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OPERATION CROSSROADS: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll. By Jonathan M. Weisgall. Annapolis (Maryland): Naval Institute Press. 1994. xvii, 415 pp. (Photos.) US$31.95, cloth. ISBN 1-55750-919-0
DURING THE PERIOD 1946 to 1958 the United States detonated twentythree atomic bombs in the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. The inaugural blasts - code named Able and Baker - took place in July 1946 and constituted Operation Crossroads. Crossroads contributed the words "Bikini" (the scant, two-piece swimsuit named after the test site) and "fallout" to our vocabulary. Far more important, however, is the fact that Crossroads marked the intersection of powerful historical forces, knowledge of which is critical to our understanding of the cold war era. Atomic technology, American foreign policy, arms control, and interservice rivalry between the United States Navy (USN) and the Army Airforce (AAF) figured prominently in the Crossroads story. So...