Could Hitler have built atomic bomb first? | Annie Jacobsen and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Annie Jacobsen is an investigative journalist and author of "Nuclear War: A Scenario" and many other books on war, weapons, government secrecy, and national security.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[LexClips]

Guest bio: Annie Jacobsen is an investigative journalist and author of "Nuclear War: A Scenario" and many other books on war, weapons, government secrecy, and national security.

[victorocallaghan]

I had the privilege of meeting ww2 veteran Major Tony Hibbets 3 weeks before he passed away in 2014. He was 97. He fought in the Battle of France and escaped from Calais in 1940.
Fought at the bridge in Arnhem, was captured and escaped. He went onto join T force. Britains intelligence unit for picking up scientist.
He said that the Germans were nowhere near close to ever making an atomic bomb due to finances, material resources and manpower.
It is always nice to hear an opinon from those who were there. Not a historian who likes to make a slightly schewed point just be different and say they discovered something new.

[jackmehoff]

We also werent fighting a war on oir soil. We developed the weapon without being bombed every day. Really slows production. Materials/transport

[chrisphillips]

From what I’ve read and watched over the years about the viability of a German atomic bomb, they had nowhere near the resources in industrial capacity and key scientific personnel left in Germany to pull that off. Developing rocket technology is one thing but a successful atomic bomb project is immensely more difficult. And to do so with German cities and industrial centers being bombed regularly…..
Their heavy water acquisition was foiled. They couldn’t even get sufficient quantities of that to even get enough materials together. And where would they have the area and isolation to test it?

[mattbishop]

People seem to forget that the Manhatten Project was as much about throwing ghastly sums of money at the problem as it was the brilliant people. Germany was close to broke for so much of the war; they plundered occupied lands just to keep their war machine as it was moving along. What would they have cut to fund atomic weapons akin to the Manhatten Project? Tanks? Fighters? Submarines? They had to cut their air force back to defense fighters, kept cheaper stug assault guns and tank destroyers in production as they couldn't afford enough tanks, and so on. Buidling atomic bombs is hideously expensive and unleas the Allies quit and gave them the ability to pull money from tanks and planes and shells they simply couldnt come close to paying for a program. I'd add that Speer, like most of the surviving German hierarchy, was quick to mention (without evidence) that they wouldnhave come up with wunderwaffe and won the war if it hadn't been for the stupid (and conveniently dead and unable to defend himself) ol Adolf getting in the way. . .

[howitusedtobe]

I saw Ms Jacobsen on Rogan some years back and she didn’t exactly make a great case I recall some mixed up information and outright nonsense pedaling… This is more of the same

[LifeIsGood-qgxv]

I swear it feels like Lex asks every one of his guests the same question 😂

[DarkDesertMovies]

I never see the question asked: If we hadn't built the bombs, what would we have done with the $2b it cost to build them. How many ships/planes/bombs/bullets would that have bought, and how much sooner would the war have ended if we had used it.

[crustymunky]

What is the black device with the blue light sitting on the desk next to Lex ?

[FirstLast-msyl]

We learned after the war that Germany was not even close to developing a bomb.

[jessedorsettii]

seriously doubt it. They needed to mine and refine an incredible amount of fuel. They didn't have the resources or the location. We, here in America, had a vast nation as big as most of the Western European counties combined, to work IN PEACE AND IN SECRET. No way they could have done that. The Russians could and did, however, but not Germany....not Hitler. Especially not Hitler. He never did the right thing militarily anyways.

[raygamma]

No. He didn't have enough Uranium or Mathematicians or Industrial Capacity vis-a-vis the

[oodhwdx]

They had to us3 it, the $ spent on producing it, the unfamiliarity with the weapon, no one knew exactly what would happen

[evolvedape]

My grandfather was shot in the back in Okinawa.

[Taffeyboy]

Why do you need her opinion about whether we should have dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. What difference does it make? Why would you ask?

[OtherworldJudge]

I like Annie, however she's doesn't often answer the question she's asked and will more often start off with "In my book XYZ when I was interviewing X person, they spoke about Y topic and how Z was in W program" and proceeds to waffle on (interestingly mind you)

Any time there's a good question asked I know it's not going to be answered lol

[HolgerLovesMusic]

She should be a politican.
She is good not answering questions and coming up with BS.

[thingonathinginathing]

Gernamy was reverse engineering UAP technology.

[aleinstein]

No. He couldn't of. no heavy water

[UncleStepon]

Poor question about ww2. If America didn’t use them, the Japanese were prepared to fight until the end, extinction was the fear. It also would have inflicted a million or so more casualties on the Americans. Given the American experience all the way to Honshu, why would they willingly not use atomic bombs and extend the war for 2-3 years at least. Lex, you’re usually good but this entire interview and your ridiculous question here need some work. Btw your people would have had to wait a few more years as well, if you think about you.