Geoffrey Hankey 1

We Didnt Start the Fire Paper

The 1950s, and 1951 specifically, were hotbeds of political, social, and societal change. As
exemplified by the civil rights movement, the very beginning of the later free love zeitgeist of the
1960s, and post-WWII prosperity. However, among all these, predominately positive social
changes there still loomed the occasional dark spectre upon the predominately idyllic, optimistic
period, chief among them were, as evidenced in Billy Joels song We Didnt Start the Fire Sugar
Ray Robinsons ego, the construction of the hydrogen bomb, and the Rosenberg nuclear trials.

Widely considered one of the greatest boxing greats who ever lived, Sugar Ray Williams
was not very well liked during his original career, at least not nearly as much as one would think a
sports star wouldve been liked, recognized officially nationwide as lightweight champion, and
officially as middleweight champion in Pennsylvania. He was disliked because of his visible self-
doubt issues. (Heinz p. 17)

The original hydrogen bomb was codenamed Ivy Mike, and tested in Bikini Atoll, an island
close to Australia. It was easily orders of magnitude more powerful than the original atomic bombs,
Fat Man, and Little Boy, dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. The original atomic
bombs had a blast radius of about 2 miles, whereas the hydrogen bomb had a blast radius of
approximately 20 miles (The Truth About the Hydrogen Bomb Laurence p.17). The hydrogen bomb
easily had the force of a million tons of TNT, possibly more (Laurence p. 16) and was the linchpin
in the American strategy to maintain dominance over the USSR during the Cold War, there were
several layers of espionage, counter espionage and counter-counter espionage, which is technically
distinct from just espionage, as little sense as that makes linguistically, hence the existence of the
term counter-intelligence.

On the subject of espionage, the Rosenberg trials, wherein Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were
sentenced to death, because they traded nuclear secrets with the Soviets during war time which was
high treason. The man who helped them smuggle out the information was only given several years
in prison as a sentence (Atomic Spies: A Summary of the Trials p.125), whereas the Rosenbergs
were executed via electric chair a few days after the end of their trial. They werent the first, or the
only ones to provide the Soviets with nuclear intelligence, be it through espionage, defection, or
plain fifth-column-ism, but the Rosenbergs were easily among the more high profile of the traitors,
 Geoffrey Hankey 2

because unlike the defectors, and fifth columns in the various programs, the Rosenbergs were just
average, American citizens who came into this information and sent it to the Soviets for a profit.

The topics are closely related and intertwined with one another, though no doubt they
couldve happened independently theyre thematically similar enough to warrant their position
within the song, namely, right next to one another.
 Geoffrey Hankey 3

Works Cited

"Atomic Spies: A Summary of the Trials." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 7, no. 4, Apr. 1951,
p. 125. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=s9004980&db=f5h&AN=21330963&site=ehost-
live. November 9th 2017 Masterfile
Heinz, W. C. "Why Don't They Like Ray Robinson?." Saturday Evening Post, vol. 223, no. 24, 09
Dec. 1950, p. 30. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=s9004980&db=f5h&AN=19712731&site=ehost-
live. DOI: November 9th 2017 Masterfile

Laurence, William L. "The Truth about the Hydrogen Bomb." Saturday Evening Post, vol. 222, no.
52, 24 June 1950, p. 17. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=s9004980&db=f5h&AN=19623438&site=ehost-
live. DOI:November 9th 2017 Masterfile