Indeed. The probability of government agencies not at least seriously considering a “Manhattan project” for quantum is zero.
But it’s a different situation from the 40s in many ways, consider this: quantum machines could potentially revolutionise several fields, including medicine. So by keeping an advanced machine secret (whether it has arrived or in the future) could be passing up the opportunity to save millions of lives. It’s a hell of a moral judgement call to make. I’d go so far as to say that any intelligence advantage is just not worth the trade off. You’d have to find some way to share that technology. If your hypothetical book emerged, it’d be fascinating to see how it is justified.
I think it's entirely plausible (and likely) that the US intelligence agencies would keep life-saving technologies secret if other uses of that tech would give them an edge in intelligence-gathering.
But it’s a different situation from the 40s in many ways, consider this: quantum machines could potentially revolutionise several fields, including medicine. So by keeping an advanced machine secret (whether it has arrived or in the future) could be passing up the opportunity to save millions of lives. It’s a hell of a moral judgement call to make. I’d go so far as to say that any intelligence advantage is just not worth the trade off. You’d have to find some way to share that technology. If your hypothetical book emerged, it’d be fascinating to see how it is justified.