Editing Project Plowshare (section)

==Rationale==
By exploiting the peaceful uses of the "friendly atom" in medical applications, earth removal, and later in nuclear power plants, the nuclear industry and government sought to allay public fears about nuclear technology and promote the acceptance of [[nuclear weapons]].<ref>Stone, Oliver and Kuznick, Peter, ''The Untold History of the United States'' (Gallery Books, 2012), pp. 283–284 {{ISBN?}}</ref> At the peak of the [[Atomic Age]], the United States Federal government initiated Project Plowshare, involving "peaceful nuclear explosions". The [[United States Atomic Energy Commission]] chairman at the time, [[Lewis Strauss]], announced that the Plowshares project was intended to "highlight the peaceful applications of nuclear explosive devices and thereby create a climate of world opinion that is more favorable to weapons development and tests".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hewlett |first1=Richard G. |last2=Holl |first2=Jack M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Cv_E3yLHG4C&pg=PA529 |title=Atoms for Peace and War, 1953–1961: Eisenhower and the Atomic Energy Commission |page=529 |date=1989 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles, California |quote=highlight the peaceful applications of nuclear explosive devices and thereby create a climate of world opinion that is more favorable to weapons development and tests|isbn=978-0520060180 }}</ref><ref>"semiannual report to Congress in January 1958". Other mentions of Strauss making statements in Feb 1958 or hearings being held are on p 447, and 474 it seems. p. 474's quotation: Senate Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on Control and Reduction of Armaments, Feb. 28 – April 17, 1958, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1958) pp. 1336–1364.</ref>{{request quotation|date=August 2015}} These tests were to demonstrate that atomic bombs can be used for peaceful purposes, that the atomic sword could be beaten into a plowshare.