Tragically for Pax Americana , "Could we keep the Bomb a secret ?" misheard as "Should we keep the Bomb a secret?"

Recipe for a world tragedy :

In one bowl : top American scientists , privy to the details of the Manhattan Project and well aware of the long ongoing world-wide scientific quest for the atom's inner secrets.

In the other bowl : the top American political leadership, extremely well versed in conventional military thought , economic hardball and winning elections (but who knew rather less than zero about the current hot topics in the scientific world.)

Mix the two at a top secret meeting and stand back.

Group A repeatedly told Group B that many nuclear scientists could quickly work out the main details of the atomic bomb once its existence as a workable bomb was known.

"The Bomb's supposed secrets could not remain secret."

Unfortunately the politicians misheard this as long haired ivory tower scientists interfering as rank amateurs in the area of normative actions : "The Bomb should not remain a secret".

Group B told the scientists this was something for the politicians to decide.

The politicians simply made a very common mistake in basic logic (a twist on the Is-Ought Problem)-- a basic mistake that all we humans tend to make from time to time.

But in situation where everything is conducted in secret among very few (like-minded) people, no one noticed the mistake or at the very least had the courage to point it out.

It is always unwise to talk about a policy of secrecy in secret ---- less group-non-think rules the day.

Thus all the American politicians' brave Wilsonian talk of promoting global "Freedom of Information, Religion and Speech" was instantly reduced to nought,  when their atomic actions belittled their words.

A tragic consequence for the entire world begun with a minor error in schoolboy logic ...