"The H-Bomb secret: How we got it, why we’re telling it"

When journalist Howard Morland wrote an article explaining how an H-Bomb is made, the United States Government took him to court. On March 9, 1979, Federal Judge Robert W. Warren of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, granted a temporary restraining order, followed later with an injunction, blocking The Progressive magazine from publishing the article. It was the first time in U.S. history that the government censored a publication on national security grounds. For the next six months and 19 days, The Progressive and its editors were prohibited, under the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, from "publishing or otherwise communicating, transmitting or disclosing" the restricted information in the H-bomb article. It was a historic confrontation between the rights of the press and the power of the state. Morland showed that all the vital information was available in the Encyclopedia Americana — in an article written by Dr. Edward Teller, the "Father of the H-Bomb." In the end, the government dropped its case.

Howard Morland's article was published in the November 1979 issue of The Progressive. This is a reprint of the entire magazine with additional material added later. (PDF format, 3.5 MB: http://progressive.org/magazine/november-1979-issue/ )