Edward Teller was a supporter of "Star Wars" and for that he was criticized by liberals like Carl Sagan
Includes a quote about Teller from Carl Sagan's book "A Haunted World - Science as a Fiddler"
Atomic scientist Edward Teller, known as the "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb" has died at the age of 95.
Teller played a central role in setting defense and energy policy for over half a century. He was one of the pioneers of the development of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb. He was also an ardent supporter of the use of atomic energy to generate electricity and the strategic missile defense initiative known as "Star Wars".
Teller recently suffered a stroke and died Tuesday in Stanford, California near the Hoover Institution where he served as a senior research fellow. This is what Lawrence Livermore Labs spokesman said.
During Teller's long career, he was in a position to influence the policies of several US presidents.
Edward Teller, 1908-2003
Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary and studied physics at the University of Leipzig. Worked as a physicist at the scientific laboratory in Los Alamos during World War II. He taught physics at the University of California and helped found Livermore Laboratories in the late XNUMXs.
In 1939 he was one of the three scientists who encouraged Albert Einstein to warn President Franklin Roosevelt that the power of nuclear fusion - the splitting of atomic nuclei - could be harnessed to create a new and deadly weapon.
In 1941, before the construction of the first atomic bomb even began, Teller's colleague Enrico Fermi suggested that nuclear fusion - and not fission - could be even more destructive - the hydrogen bomb. Teller tested the idea and he did develop such a weapon and was nicknamed the "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb", a term he did not like.
A megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated in 1952, and no such bomb had been used during any war. Teller received many awards during his career, including the Albert Einstein Award, the Enrico Fermi Award, and a medal from the National Science Association.
* * * * * *
Carl Sagan on Edward Teller
In the book "A World Haunted by Demons - Science as a Fiddler in Alta" Carl Sagan writes (Had-Artzi Publishing House, Ma'ariv Library, 1997, from the English of Emmanuel Lotem):
....a notable case in importance is the case of the American (Jewish) physicist born in Hungary, Edward Teller. At a young age, Teller was imprinted with the signs of the communist revolution led by Le Cohn in Hungary: his family's property, like the property of the rest of the Middle Ages, was expropriated; And he lost part of his foot in an electric accident, and suffered pain for the rest of his life. His early contributions to physics ranged from sorting rules in quantum mechanics and solid state physics to cosmology. He was the driver of the physicist Leo Soulard on his trip. To Albert Einstein's vacation residence on Long Island, in July 1939 - a meeting where Einstein's historic letter to President Franklin Roosevelt was signed, in which he called, against the background of the scientific and political developments in Nazi Germany, for the development of the fission bomb ("the atomic bomb") by the United States.
After being recruited to join the Manhattan Project and arriving at Los Alamos, Teller refused to cooperate - not because he was struck by what the Atos bomb could do, but exactly the opposite: because he wanted to work on a much more destructive weapon, the fusion bomb - the thermonuclear bomb, or "the hydrogen bomb". . (If there is a practical upper limit to the destructive energy of the atomic bomb, there is no such limit for the hydrogen bomb. But the hydrogen bomb needs an atomic bomb, to be used as an explosive.)
After the fission bomb was invented, after Germany and Japan surrendered, after the war ended, Teller continued to stubbornly preach the development of what he called "the writer", with the first intention of terrorizing the Soviet Union. The fear of the restored Soviet Union, hardened and armed under the leadership of Stalin, and the national paranoia that was raging in America under the name of McCarthyism, made it easier for Teller on his way. However, a big obstacle stood in front of him in the form of Oppenheimer, who became the chairman of the general advisory committee at the Atomic Energy Commission that would end the war. Teller provided critical testimony at a government hearing, testimony implicating Oppenheimer's loyalty to the United States. It is accepted by many that Teller's involvement played an important role in what followed: although the hearing did not reach an unequivocal conclusion regarding Oppenheimer's disloyalty, he was for some reason denied the security clearance he had, he was forced to resign from his position at the Commission, and Teller's path to The supermarket opened.
It is common to attribute the technique necessary for the creation of thermonuclear weapons to Teller and the mathematician Stanislas, however, Hans Bata, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who headed the theoretical wing of the Manhattan Project and played a central role in the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, testifies that Teller's original proposal was flawed, and the work of many others to bring thermonuclear weapons into existence. Thanks to basic technical contributions by a young physicist named Richard Garvin, the United States was able to detonate a thermonuclear "device". First in 1952 - it was too cumbersome to carry in a missile or bomber: it simply remained lying where it was assembled, until it exploded. The first real hydrogen bomb was a Soviet invention, which was detonated a year later. There was a debate about whether the Soviet Union would have developed a thermonuclear weapon if the United States had not done so, and whether an American thermonuclear weapon was even needed to deter the Soviets from using their hydrogen bomb - since the United States already had a considerable stockpile of fission weapons at the time. The evidence we now have indicates that even before the Soviet Union detonated its first fission bomb, it already had credible programs for thermonuclear weapons. It was the "next logical step". But the Soviet pursuit of fusion weapons was greatly helped by the news - which came from intelligence sources - that the Americans were working on such a weapon.
In my view, the consequences of a worldwide nuclear war became much more dangerous with the invention of the hydrogen bomb, because the airfoil of a thermonuclear weapon is much more difficult, in terms of burning cities, raising huge amounts of smoke, cooling and darkening the earth, and causing a nuclear winter. on a global scale. Perhaps it was the most stormy scientific debate I was involved in (from 1983 to 1990). Much of this debate was politically motivated. The strategic implications of a nuclear winter were worrisome, for those who advocated a policy of massive response to deter a nuclear attack, or for those who sought to rely on the option of a massive first strike. In both cases, the environmental consequences would cause the self-destruction of any country that launched a large number of nuclear weapons, even in the absence of any response from the enemy. A recurring element in the strategic policy of several decades, and the reason for the accumulation of thousands of nuclear weapons, suddenly lost a large part of their credibility.
….. Edward Teller, whatever his actual contribution may be, is widely known as the "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb". In an adoring article in 1954, Life magazine described his "almost fanatical determination" to build the hydrogen bomb. It seems to me that the continuation of his career can be understood, to a large extent, as an attempt to justify what he gave birth to. Teller claimed, and this is not an unreasonable claim, that the hydrogen bombs keep the peace, a. At least a thermonuclear war is prevented, because the consequences of a war between nuclear powers are now too dangerous. We haven't had a nuclear war yet, have we? But all such claims proceed from the assumption that all nuclear-weapon states have been, and always will be, rational actors in the international arena, and their leaders (or their military officers, or the nuclear policemen responsible for the nuclear weapons) will never be swept away into outbursts of insane vengeful rage. In a century that saw Stalin and Hitler, this is nonsense.
Teller was a major factor in the effort to prevent the achievement of a comprehensive international agreement banning nuclear weapons tests, he did his best to thwart the completion of the partial agreement to ban tests (above ground only) in 1963. His claims, as if above ground tests were essential to its existence. The "improvement" of the nuclear weapons stockpile, and as if the ratification of the agreement would amount to "jeopardizing the future well-being of our country", were revealed as far-fetched. He was also a vigorous advocate of fission-based power plants, which he described as safe and economical, and presented himself as the sole victim of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania (1979); He had a heart attack, he said, during an argument on this subject. Teller advocated detonating nuclear weapons from Alaska to South Africa, to dig harbors and shipping channels, to get rid of unnecessary mountains and to carry out extensive earthworks. It is said that when he presented such a plan to Frederica, Queen of Greece, she replied, "Thank you very much, Dr. Teller, your father already has enough nice ruins in Greece." You want to put Einstein's theory of general relativity to the test, detonate a nuclear weapon on the far side of the sun, Teller suggested, want to test the chemical composition of the moon? They flew a hydrogen bomb at him, exploded. her, and check the spectrum of the flash and the fireball.
Moreover, in the 80s, Teller sold the idea of Star Wars to President Ronald Reagan - the two called it the "Strategic Defense Initiative". It seems that Reagan believed Teller's highly imaginative story, as if it were possible to build an orbital laser the size of a writing desk, which would receive its power from a hydrogen bomb and launch an X-ray beam that would destroy 10,000 Soviet missiles in flight, thus providing real protection to the citizens of the United States in the event of a global thermonuclear war....
Edward Teller - the father of the hydrogen bomb - died
Edward Teller, the pioneer of molecular physics and the father of the hydrogen bomb, died on Tuesday at the age of 95.
Edward Teller, the pioneer of molecular physics and who was called the "father of the hydrogen bomb", died on Tuesday at the age of 95, a spokeswoman for Stanford University in California said on Wednesday. The spokeswoman said Teller suffered a stroke earlier this week and died at his home.
Teller, born in Hungary and naturalized in the USA, was one of the senior scientists who escaped from Nazi Germany, and joined the work on the "Manhattan Project", the secret development program of the American nuclear bomb.
After World War II, Teller convinced American President Harry Truman of the need to develop the hydrogen bomb, which was more powerful than the atomic bomb.
The first American test of the hydrogen bomb was done in November 1952. The bomb tested was 2,500 times more powerful than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
In recent years, the 95-year-old Teller was a senior scientist at the Hoover Institution, specializing in defense and energy policy. He was also a member of the American Physical Society, the American Nuclear Society and the National and American Academies of Sciences.
Teller was born in Budapest in 1908 and received a doctorate in physics in 1930 at the University of Leipzig. He did his postdoctoral work in Copenhagen, alongside the Danish nuclear physicist, Nils Bohr.
The hydrogen bomb, which was never used in wartime, was one of the pillars of "MAD" - a defense doctrine that bound the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
(Mutually Assured Destruction).
At the time, Teller said that he regretted Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japanese cities. According to him, there should have been a demonstration test of the bomb, in the hope that the Japanese leadership would be impressed enough to declare the end of the war. In the XNUMXs, Teller came under sharp criticism when he helped convince President Ronald Reagan that the US should spend billions of dollars to develop a "defense umbrella" in space that was known as "Star Wars".
Teller's critics said the system, which was based in part on vpgk, satellites equipped with laser systems, was designed to intercept enemy missiles, but they said it was too expensive and impossible to build. Teller did win the battle, but the ambitious defense umbrella remains a "work in progress" to this day.
Successors of Edward TellerReuven Fedhzor, Haaretz, 15/9/03
"Without Teller, the world would be a much better place," once claimed Dr. Isidore Rabi, a Nobel laureate, referring to Dr. Edward Teller, who died last week at the age of 95 and was a colleague of the "Manhattan Project", the plan to develop the American nuclear bomb. "If there was absolute evil walking on the face of the earth, it would undoubtedly be Teller," stated another determined critic of the one called "the father of the hydrogen bomb."
There were few, if any, scientists in the 20th century who evoked such strong feelings, of fear and hatred on the one hand and admiration and affection on the other, as Teller evoked. His life story is important not only because he had a decisive influence on the worldview and policies of American presidents in the last six decades, but also because he is to a large extent the man whose views shaped the image of today's nuclear world, the one that miraculously has not yet been annihilated by the destructive weapons that Steller operated With so much piety to praise and develop.
It is doubtful whether without Teller's tireless efforts the hydrogen bomb would have come into the world, the "normal" atomic bomb pales in comparison to its destructive power.
For an entire decade, he pushed, at first almost alone, the idea of developing the ultimate weapon, until he was able to convince President Harry Truman to order the Atomic Energy Commission, on January 31, 1950, "to continue work on all types of nuclear weapons, including the hydrogen bomb." Less than two years later, on November 1, 1952, the USA detonated the first hydrogen bomb, the destructive power of which was 700 times greater than the one dropped on Hiroshima. The island in the Pacific Ocean, where the experiment was conducted, disappeared from the map.
However, Teller was not only "the father of the hydrogen bomb", but also a passionate and influential supporter of the development of all types of nuclear weapons; A vigorous opponent of the cessation of nuclear testing; And who managed to convince President Ronald Reagan to agree to develop expensive and unnecessary defense systems against ballistic missiles. But mostly he will be remembered as someone whose deep suspicion of the intentions of the Soviet Union and his aversion to communism guided him until his last day.
In short, this is the man of whom it can be said that for more than half a century he stood at the most critical strategic decision points and contributed more than anyone else to the mad arms race, at the height of which more than 70 nuclear missiles were placed on both sides of the Iron Curtain, the destruction of which would have led to the obliteration of civilization.
It would be a mistake to see Butler as a solitary man. In fact, his life and actions embodied the essence of the national security concept of many generations of leadership in the USA. When Teller explained his worldview, the main of which is, "In a dangerous world you cannot achieve peace, unless you are strong", he actually cited the foundations of the worldview that formed the basis of American policy during the years of the Cold War.
As a Jewish child in Hungary who witnessed the horrors of the Communist rule of Béla Kuhn and the fascist rule of Miklos Horthy, and as a university lecturer forced to exile from Germany after Hitler's rise to power and following the hardships of his family who remained in Hungary under Communist rule after World War II, Teller developed a strong hatred for tyranny And a real fear of communism.
The combination of the "fear of the reds" and the frustration that was his share for many years, when he did not receive the support of his fellow scientists in promoting the hydrogen bomb development program, caused him to testify against Robert Oppenheimer, one of the victims of the McCarthyism hysteria in the 50s. It seems that his testimony was what decided the fate of Oppenheimer's career Oppenheimer, who was his boss in the "Manhattan Project", and led to the removal of his security classification. Almost all of Teller's colleagues boycotted him because of this testimony, and he himself admitted his mistake in his lifetime.
The character of Dr. Strangelove, the eccentric, "bomb-loving" scientist, with the prosthetic arm, who speaks with a heavy Central European accent, in Stanley Kubrick's famous film, was inspired by Teller's character. Teller lost a leg when he jumped from a tram in Munich in 1928 and spoke English with a heavy Hungarian accent. Kubrick directed a scathing satire, intended to denounce the knights of the Cold War and warn against the accelerated armament with nuclear weapons.
Although Peter Sellers very skillfully played Teller's character, the mad scientific advisor, who urges the president to launch nuclear bombs and eliminate all communists, the film had no effect on American policy. Teller went on to become one of the most influential advisers to American presidents.
His worldview was enriched with the entry of George Bush Jr. into the White House. Much was satisfied with the young president, who adopted a new policy, which lowers the threshold of nuclear threats and includes plans for the development of new nuclear weapons. Bush also canceled the treaty that prevented the deployment of anti-missile defense systems, and even accelerated their development, just as Teller wanted to do already in the 80s. And so, instead of Teller's death also heralding the death of the Cold War spirit, the centers of power in Washington were taken over by his successors , and these bear with genius the legacy of the one who almost led the world to its destruction. Teller is indeed dead, but unfortunately, the ghost of Dr. Strangelove continues to haunt the corridors of the White House and the Pentagon.
George Marquardt, a pilot who photographed the Hiroshima bombing, has diedUri Darumi, Haaretz, 11/9/03 reports that George Marquardt, a pilot who photographed the Hiroshima bombing, 2003-1919, on August 6, 1945, George Marquardt took off with his B-29 bomber, nicknamed "the least evil ”, from Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean towards Japan. His goal was to stick to the lead plane - "Enola Gay" - and photograph the mushroom that will rise from the city of Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb is dropped on it.
Immediately after the drop, the crew members were blinded, and Markart felt as if a huge hand shook the bomber. When he recovered he photographed the giant mushroom. After the Nagasaki bomb, the third bomb was supposed to be dropped, but the Japanese surrendered.
