This is Part IX of “The Secret History of Silicon Valley.” Read Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IVa here, Part IVb here, Part V here, Part VIa here, Part VIb here, Part VII here and Part VIII here. See the Secret History bibliography for sources and supplemental reading.
Finally getting around to reading Annie Jacobson's Area 51 book, which recounts the Bikini Atoll Crossroads shot in 1946. She quotes a witness as saying the bomb test affected him so deeply that he immediately understood these weapons could never be used. The alternative was figuring out what was going on inside the Soviet Union as a way of preventing WW III. He and others immediately got to work on the U-2 spy plane and, with it, the rise of SIGINT.
Finally getting around to reading Annie Jacobson's Area 51 book, which recounts the Bikini Atoll Crossroads shot in 1946. She quotes a witness as saying the bomb test affected him so deeply that he immediately understood these weapons could never be used. The alternative was figuring out what was going on inside the Soviet Union as a way of preventing WW III. He and others immediately got to work on the U-2 spy plane and, with it, the rise of SIGINT.