Customer Reviews:
"The Firecracker Boys" never quit!.......2005-09-07
With John Bolton as our renegade permanent representative to the UN, working for the US nuclear weapons industry by trying to stop the UN program of nonproliferation, "The Firecracker Boys" so brilliantly described in Dan O'Neill's book continue even today with their diabolical efforts. Not to mention NASA's plan to send nuclear powered rockets into space.
Essential, scary reading.......2004-03-13
About a fascinating chapter in American history, and how the democratic process prevailed--barely--over the certain vested interests in the military-industrial complex. Makes Dwight Eisenhower look like a prophet--and also details some of the career of Edward Tellar, rightly celebrated as the father of the American H-bomb but then subsequently responsible for much bad science, including Ronald Reagan's Star Wars. This book is very well researched and documented. One moral to draw: citizens must be involved with public policy. The former Soviet Union, undertaking a similar project, turned areas of Siberia so radioactive that it will not be safe to dwell there for 10,000 or more years. We almost did the same in Alaska--but thankfully did not. Read this book to (1) understand how this disaster was averted, and what we can do to continue to safeguard our democratic processes; and (2) for great--true--story.
Creepy.......2003-11-19
I cannot help but notcice how the reviewers which seem to have been deeply disgusted by this book prefer to remain anonymous. Even if their opinion is that nuclear testing should continue, it disturbs me that these reviewers were not taken aback by the colossal mountain of half-truths, misrepresentations, and downright lies that the AEC (Atomic Energy Comission) used to lobby this project to Alaskans.
And remember, these are the same guys who concluded that it would be acceptable to conduct underground nuclear tests near one of the most active fault lines in the world, on Amchitka Island out on the Aleutian chain.
I can only say that never again will I be able to look at a map of my state without imagining a "polar bear shaped harbor" etched in to the wind battered coast somewhere between Barrow and Kotzebue.
A Well Written and Researched Cautionary Tale.......2002-02-04
Behind the blithe title of this book is a serious work. More, it's an important book. Its subject is Project Chariot, a proposed nuclear excavation on Alaska's Bering Strait. Project Plowshare, initiated in the late 50's, was the umbrella effort to put nuclear explosions to work for non-military purposes, and Project Chariot was billed as one of its first trials. The Firecracker Boys is the history of the conception, marketing, and eventual failure by the nuclear establishment in the face of a burgeoning environmental movement.
But the book is more than a history; it's the story of the the people on both sides of the fight, and of nuclear testing.There are few books which analyze the history of nuclear testing in the United States, and while detailing the story of Project Chariot, Dan O'Neill gives the most comprehensive history I've yet read of nuclear testing in general. This was surprising to me because I have been in search of such a book, and was delighted to discover it behind what would seem to be a narrow slice of the annals of nuclear testing.
O'Neill shows us the world of the Eskimos who, for centuries or longer, lived not far from the selected site of the harbor which was to be blasted from the Bering shore. We also get a view into the life and motivations of Edward Teller, the vociferous proponent of Plowshare's geographical engineering, and other nuclear scientists and officials: "If your mountain isn't in the right place, drop us a card". In addition, the Atomic Energy Commission, in an effort to appear interested in the safety of such a detonation, instituted a program of scientific studies of the site and of the Eskimos nearby. When the biologists, geologist and sociologists refused to be cowed and censored by the AEC, the scientists spoke out at great risk in order to let the truth be known.
The struggle for the truth, as told by O'Neill, is an important element of the book, and a cautionary tale for today. The U.S. Government, under the auspices of the AEC, misled and deceived the citizens of the U.S. about the safety and necessity of nuclear testing. The author patiently outlines the contrast between recently declassified materials, and what the officials of the AEC were saying to the press, the Eskimos and to the American public about the dangers of fallout from nuclear testing. No doubt, the AEC felt it was justified in such disregard and duplicity in the name of national security and of the progress of science. When agents of the government act in a manner beyond accountability and scrutiny, and with ideological obsessiveness, the result is usually detrimental to the public. In this well written and well researched book, Dan O'Neill tells a mostly forgotten story which every American should know.
A dull diatribe on something that never happened.......2000-10-05
The author writes with a 20-20 hindsight that doesn't even begin to try to understand the bomb, the Cold War, or the nature of those times. What point was there in writing an anti-nuclear book about a nuclear detonation that NEVER happened?
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the H-bomb decision (and mistakes made).......2005-08-05
Dr. York's fascinating history of the H-bomb decision stands the test of time well. It is a telling lesson of mistakes made in a U.S. decision pushed by overly conservative decisionmaking, much of it tied up with the decision to strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance. The best part of the book--which is especially useful for teaching--is his careful counterfactual history of what might have happened had we not deployed the H-bomb and instead tried to control it. He shows convincingly that boosted fission weapons would have been more than adequate to meet any possible Soviet threat--should arms control efforts have failed. Instead, they weren't even tried, and the arms race continued out of control until the late 1980s. York's book is worth reading by anyone interested in politics of the nuclear age.
Amazon.com
It would be difficult to identify three American scientists whose work had a greater effect on world politics than Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller. This exhaustive account of how they worked together (and competed against each other) on the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs is more a story of people than science. Author Gregg Herken of the Smithsonian Institution informs us, for instance, of Oppenheimer's "riotous parties" in the 1930s, in which latecomers would see "the top physicists of their generation, drunk and crouched on all fours, playing a version of tiddly-winks on the geometric patterns of Oppenheimer's Navajo rug." Despite a few light touches, Brotherhood of the Bomb is no breezy profile of three great minds. Instead, it is a serious look at invention, rivalry, and betrayal. One of the central episodes involves Oppenheimer's too-cozy relationship with radical-left politics--he carelessly associated with Communists, even though he occupied one of the most sensitive jobs in the U.S. government during the cold war--and Teller's momentous decision to testify against him. This event is one of the most controversial in the annals of American science, and Herken tells it straight, with barely a word of editorial comment. Fans of Richard Rhodes will enjoy this triple biography, as will anybody with an interest in science, politics, and top-secret security clearances. --John J. Miller
Book Description
The story of the twentieth century is largely the story of the power of science and technology. Within that story is the incredible tale of the human conflict between three men-Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller-the scientists most responsible for the advent of weapons of mass destruction. How did science, enlisted in the service of the state during the Second World War, become a slave to its patron during the Cold War-and scientists with it? The story of these three men, is fundamentally about loyalty-to the country, to science, and to each other-and about the wrenching choices that had to be made when these allegiances came into conflict. Gregg Herken gives us the behind-the-scenes account based upon a decade of research, interviews, and new documents. Brotherhood of the Bomb is a vital slice of American history told authoritatively-and grippingly-for the first time.
Customer Reviews:
Opje was an Elfin King of Many a Thing..........2006-03-16
Thunderous clouds, brilliant purple and multicolor radioactive plumes jettisoning what were once precious sought after kilograms of chemistry's beyond bizzare materials. Such is the ballad that was played one mid-July morning, 1945, at Trinity Test Site, some 20 miles east south east of San Antonio, NM, after years of ingenius experimental and theoretical work, computation, sweating, rivalry, and finally utterly destructive convergeancey into one of modern science's most awe inspiring gadgets. 'The gadget' as it would come to be called, set off much else than meagerly its own wired and machined self - in the process of self-detonation, the world's first atom bomb brought about, unexpectedly and unforseen, a world's first feat, an end to a world conflict, - Pacific front - a murky arms race with juxtaposed cold war, and, in the end one of mankinds most thrilling achievements. Insofar as today's youth can but arbitrarily surmount such things as 'shock waves' or 'nonlinear implosionary ballistics dynamics,' fresh-faced prodigys, physics phenoms, and other human wonder-brains pulled off not only calculations of destiny, but together made Los Alamos into the 'biggest collection of eggheads ever assembled.' The conflict-laden tale of Robert Oppenheimer (head of Project Manhatten, razor-sharp intellect, lead bomb scientist), Ernest Lawrence (brilliant, charismatic, enthusiastic, well-liked Rad Lad originator and Nobel Laureate for his cyclotron radiation experiments), and 'the only monomaniac to suffer from multiple manias, Beethoven piano playing in nothing but fortissimo, Hungarian figurehead, H-bomb creator (sort of)' Edward Teller. Three characters starkly in contrast to each other's standout, signature diacritics: Oppenheimer as excessively learned linguist and rapid assimilator; Lawrence as driven lab leader with a taste for breaking particle accelerator barriers; Teller as European half-scientist, half-artist idea maker. What was to be born in each of these men's dreams - however much in contrast those drifting epiphanies may have been - manifested themselves first on paper as drawing or formulae, then as physical device or working instrument. Brotherhood of the Bomb is indeed a story of the tangled correspondances and relationships forged and endured throughout the war, but it is more than that. It delves deep into personal convictions, dilemmas, creativity, mystifying outcomes of the scientific method and journey, and controversial until-now-unspoken tid bits from an era of Top Secrecy. Remembering such times is difficult to say the very least even for the men, and women, directly involved. This is perhaps so because the people at the fore, engrossed in whatever field of research, were themselves in every way imaginable enigmas - contradictions in motion in several instances. Loyalties would become circumspect, motives would held under microscope, but inevitably the real impact of a product of incomprehensible physics is to be realized most dismayingly. Costs and benefits aside, a history of an odyssey only meant for storybooks is casually uncovered via the recorded conversations and testimonies of some of America's cleverest progenitors of atomic energy and its later fabrications (i.e. Three Mile Island incident frenzy). If anything, the clueless sees an open door into the realm of nuclear technology's immemorial upbringing(s) and drama(s). Even six decades later, the actual underpinnings of the bomb are little understood except in major institutions and classified memos/docs. This title's innards unearth a memoir so shockingly abstract, it has to be reread repeatedly in order to grasp any certain feel for what occured, what prompted its occurence, and what eventuated beyond zero hour in New Mexicos vaguely populated regions - similar to spotting a haystack enveloping a needle, you pick the size.
In a land of enchantment, one may yet find green-hued intense-heat-fused silicates of that moment in history when thermodynamicist, hydrodynamicisit, theoretist in general all let out a gargantuan 'Yahoo!' predating Google's punching bag companion of a search engine.
Echoes no longer may be detected in now and then restricted spaces, but on that morning just following a timely (to them painstakingly unwelcomed) foreshadowing thunderstorm of nature's ever present wrath, the genie was unleashed...never to be resealed. Loose for purposes unknown and grandiose. Rustically elegant though the desert may be, a flash of a thousand suns was never intentionally in store, or until it became apparent by sight and sound... as well as indetectible rays of near cosmic intensity and proportion.
This book is so well written I don't dare try to emulate or mimic its prose. Intimate details of the three protagonists nearest the atom bomb's core are intriguingly lurid, stunning in places, still somehow comforting to those who care about science and its indisputable power and constant legacy. One physicist I would like to have seen mentioned more is John Von Neumann, who essentially single-handedly - by rigorously furthering the conceptual drafts of Neddermeyer through mathematical construct and logical proof - theorized implosion, amongst a vast array of other topics and subjects only a rare but true polymath could conjure (Claude Shannon is another). Without Von Neumann there is no Super, no computer architecture, no game theory, no quantum mechanics (or at least its 'Group Theory' aspects) and no non-fictional inspiration for generations succeeding.
Also, of due notoriety is the background and determined leadership of General Leslie R. Groves - lead construction planner of the Pentagon and Project Manhatten organizer possessing immense profundity of temperance and sensibilty.
Worthy of a Shakespearean Drama.......2005-07-20
The overwhelming egos which worked together on the bomb and became a part of the fallout after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Informative, unbiased, a bit turgid .......2005-07-15
"Brotherhood of the Bomb" is very good for its first hundred pages as it details the early careers of physicists Ernest Lawrence, Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller. Thereafter, the book gets a little too fact-laden and turgid, but it is still a worthwhile book to make your way through. The author strives for, and mostly achieves, an objective account of the scientific and political controversies surrounding Robert Oppenheimer.
The book is good in that it gives recognition to Lawrence as a pioneering atomic energy physicist and assigns only secondary roles to Oppenheimer and Teller in the early part of the book. The charismatic Oppenheimer, however, received the assignment of leading the team that built the first atomic bomb -- although General Leslie Groves, decidely uncharismatic, was really the man who managed the multi-faceted project and deserves at least equal credit with the scientists. Teller, also decidely uncharismatic, later managed the hydrogen bomb project and was a prominent voice in the scientific community until the 1980s.
The fascination of all the science is enhanced by Oppie's politics and the eventual denial of a security clearance for him to work for the U.S. government. The author describes Oppie's many leftist and Communist friends and contacts -- as investigated by the FBI and military security -- in great detail. In most accounts, Teller is the dastardly villain who declines to recommend Oppie for a renewal of his security clearance -- and Oppie forever after will be a hero to those who see this as a vast injustice. I hardly think it was all that big a deal. Oppie didn't go to jail, he didn't lose his job, he wasn't disgraced in the scientific community -- if anything his reputation and fame were enhanced. All that happened to Oppie was that he was denied the opportunity to work on bigger and better bombs within the US government.
Teller, in one divergent view, was the man of conscience who expressed his view and will be forever punished for it. While I would be surprised to learn that Oppie was a spy, rational people could certainly believe that he was a potential security threat; many of his closest associates and relatives were Communists and his past political behavior had been reckless for a man entrusted with the most sensitive secrets of the U.S. government. As the old saw goes, you are judged by the company you keep -- and nobody in his right mind would have shared atomic secrets with many of Oppie's friends. (The Teller vs Oppenheimer controversy will undoubtedly continue through the ages.)
If you like this book, you might also look at Richard Rhodes' two monumental volumes on the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs.
Smallchief
Interesting Subject - Not An Easy Read.......2005-05-18
This is the story of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb and the brotherhood of men whose genius created the bomb. While the story is very interesting, the text is difficult to read. The book has excellent photographs of the period which are just amazing to see. The book has over 80 pages of notes and looks like some kind of legal paper.
Great Topic - Very Poorly Written.......2005-03-31
The book covers an amazing subject matter and I was excited to get it and dive into but. But after slogging through the first 100 pages, I had to see what other reviewers may have said on Amazon. I see that a few agree with me. The topic is one of the most amazing of our time, but the writing is horribly academic, boring, and poor. Gregg Herken's writing style (if one can even call it that) is similar to a law review article, where facts are piled up high, references are many, but any style and creativity is buried. In this book, it's does not exist. I would not recommend this to other to read.
Book Description
One Nobel Prize-winning physicist called Edward Teller, "A great man of vast imagination...[one of the] most thoughtful statesmen of science." Another called him, "A danger to all that is important...It would have been a better world without [him]." That both opinions about Teller were commonly held and equally true is one of the enduring mysteries about the man dubbed "the father of the H-bomb." In the story of Teller's life and career, told here in greater depth and detail than ever before, Peter Goodchild unravels the complex web of harsh early experiences, character flaws, and personal and professional frustrations that lay behind the paradox of "the real Dr. Strangelove."
Goodchild's biography draws on interviews with more than fifty of Teller's colleagues and friends. Their voices echo through the book, expressing admiration and contempt, affection and hatred, as we observe Teller's involvement in every stage of building the atomic bomb, and his subsequent pursuit of causes that drew the world deeper into the Cold War--alienating many of his scientific colleagues even as he provided the intellectual lead for politicians, the military, and presidents as they shaped Western policy. Goodchild interviewed Teller himself at the end of his life, and what emerges from this interview, as well as from Teller's Memoirs and recently unearthed correspondence, is a clearer view of the contradictions and controversies that riddled the man's life. Most of all, though, this absorbing biography rescues Edward Teller from the caricatures that have served to describe him until now. In their place, Goodchild shows us one of the most powerful scientists of the twentieth century in all his enigmatic humanity.
Customer Reviews:
not a serious biography.......2006-06-21
Peter Goodchild, otherwise a documentary maker for the BBC, has written a biography of Edward Teller that I found to be disappointing.
As someone very interested by the era and its scientists, I was surprised that he omits John von Neuman from his "suspects list" of possible inspirations for Dr. Strangelove. There is a strong case for this: like Dr. Strangelove, von Neuman was wheelchair-bound, consulted for the Rand Corporation, spoke German as a native speaker, was very knowledgeable about game theory (he co-invented it), and at times advocated a preemptive war against the Soviet Union.
In reading this book, I did not feel that I came to know Edward Teller, who was a very interesting, if controversial, man. I learned a little about his origins, his studies, his projects, and the controversies that he was embroiled in. But only in a few events did I feel that Goodchild got to the bottom of what happened. This book reads more like a Life magazine article, or a description of a new wondersoap than like a work of history.
I disliked that Goodchild makes interesting points, but then doesn't provide sources to support them. An example: Goodchild quotes an American soldier to the effect that the US military knew and tolerated that top secret information about the work at Los Alamos was being flown to the Soviet Union by the planeload, and names the air field where this is said to have happened. This is a spectacular allegation, if true. Unfortunately the sources he offers to substantiate this claim were a Soviet code clerk who worked at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, and an American soldier who sold his story at the height of the Red Scare. Both wrote books that needed spectacular stories to sell well. Neither the Venona decrypts nor the Mitrokhin archive, both of which have provided us with a good understanding of how the Soviets exported technology from Los Alamos allude even remotely to these clandestine flights. This is not to claim with certainty that these flights never happened, but rather to say that by not credibly substantiating his claims, Goodchild makes it clear that his work is not serious. Was there no FOIA or other source to substantiate this spectacular claim?
Teller was involved in Operation Chariot, a project to use H-bombs to dig a harbor that nobody wanted on Alaska's ice-bound northern coast. In the end the opposition of the indigenous population led to the operation being cancelled. This entire episode, which I think should have led to a lot of soul-searching, and led an insightful biographer to ask and answer many probing questions, is more or less described in the sterile prose otherwise used to describe a fender-bender. I was also quite disappointed by his treatment of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Goodchild makes so many subtle and sometimes unfair digs that his book seems to be more a political tract than a serious and factual biography.
A further annoyance is that Goodchild doesn't include footnotes, but rather has quotes for some sources at the back of the book. This is infuriating, as some of his ideas are interesting, and it is only when you flip to the back of the book that you learn whether this is or isn't one of the ideas for which he provides corroboration. This is one of the few books I have ever read that doesn't have a single positive review of itself on its back cover. To end this review on a positive note, it is one of the few biographies of Dr. Teller, so you may have to read it for what information it offers, and perhaps to use it as a doorstop. I anxiously await a book that does justice to Edward Teller's genius, life, and times.
Good work of history; mediocre work of biography.......2005-10-10
After reading about Oppenheimer, I became interested in Teller and his role in the development of nuclear weapons and the Oppenheimer/Los Alamos saga. Though billed as a biography, this tome offers little in the way of insight into who Teller was. Instead, it is a very matter-of-fact depiction of events in his life and the development of nuclear and weapons science during the cold war. His scientific explanations are excellent and clear; his insight into his subject is sadly lacking.
Teller, Meet Anti-Teller.......2005-08-20
In terms of pure cognitive exuberance, Teller is a hard act to follow. Reading this book on the heels of Teller's "Memoirs," I sometimes felt as if I were reading a condensed version of "Memoirs" (Goodchild quotes from it so heavily) into which someone had inserted occasional prosaic objections or asides--Rose Bethe remembers blah, blah, etc.
Which is another way of saying I found the first 300 pages redundant. At that point, with the discussion of testing in Amchitka, Goodchild's version of events differs so greatly from Teller's that I was appreciative of the divergent and perhaps corrective account.
The thematic heart of the book, the tragic hero's hubris, is interesting and deserved tighter focus. I found quotes like this one by George Cowan provacative: "People do betray themselves...potentially Edward was a great man in the highest sense, but he was betrayed by his obsession for power. Early on he was ambitious, which led to frustration, and then with success came the hubris and the power. And then he was lost. He made a mistake. He knows." But I never saw this adequately substantiated in what followed. Ultimately, I felt Goodchild presented the paradox of Teller but did not understand it.
Am I the only one who finds the title a bit cheap, a bit of a marketing ploy?
The Real Deal.......2005-06-24
Whether or not Edward Teller was the model for Dr. Strangelove in the movie of the same name [my pick for #1 movie ever], he was still one of the most controversial and enigmatic scientists of the 20th Century. Peter Goodchild does an excellent job laying out Dr. Teller's life in the book Edward Teller, The Real Dr. Strangelove. Having read Goodchild's J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer Of Worlds while still in college [and having watched the BBC show by Goodchild on PBS with my Dad - a favorite memory], I trusted that Goodchild would write a book that was neither hagiography nor hatchet job, and Edward Teller did not disappoint. Goodchild gives us Teller's life as a witty and brilliant scientist [which I have personal experience with - I had the good fortune of hearing Dr. Teller speak] and as a troubled and extremely political human being. Being a fan of Oppenheimer and a partisan against the Star Wars nuclear defense, I expected that the book would support, and perhaps intensify, my negative feelings towards Teller, but reading the book has made me more sympathetic towards Teller the human being [while still vehemently disagreeing with his treatment of Oppenheimer and his support of the scientifically ridiculous Star Wars plan]. Their may be some people that are purely heroic or villainous, but most people are like J. Robert Oppenheimer or Edward Teller, flawed human beings. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science and scientists, the ethical conflicts of certain kinds of scientific research, biography, the bomb, and the history of the 20th Century. An endnote: when I was in the 1st and 2nd grades in Berkeley, California, I lived on Scenic Avenue and went to Hillside Elementary School. One of my routes to or from school took me along Hawthorne Terrace past Dr. Teller's house. I was a precocious kid and knew the "Father of the H-Bomb" lived in my neighborhood. He drove a beat-up old car, which confirms Teller's frugality as reported by Goodchild.
the real Dr. Stragelove.......2005-04-12
I will be brief as others have written very good reviews. The authors start off well connecting with those interested in Edward Teller or the "Atomic Era coming of Age". The book does justice and provides insight until the later third, begining with the Oppenheimer security issues. From there it declines into an obsession with political correctness....conservatives are right-wing and liberals have no slur attached to them. The book ends with less and less of Teller as the object but more as a useful tool for the authors spin on history.
Amazon.com
One of the great scientists of the 20th century recounts a brilliant life spanning 10 decades in his simply titled autobiography, Memoirs. Edward Teller came to the United States from Hungary in 1935 and found a place for himself at the thorny intersection of science and politics: he was deeply involved in the decision to build a hydrogen bomb during the Second World War as well as the push for missile defenses during the 1980s. His most controversial act may have been his small role in the ordeal of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who lost security clearance due to suspicious affiliations with Communist organizations. Teller says he disagreed with many of his colleague's views, but did not consider him a traitor. He also expresses remorse that his own congressional testimony was used against Oppenheimer: "I proved not only that stupidity is a general human property but that I possessed a full share of it." The bulk of Memoirs concentrates on events during the 1940s and 1950s, though Teller's influence on President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative receives plenty of attention too. --John Miller
Book Description
Edward Teller is perhaps best known for his belief in freedom through strong defense. But this extraordinary memoir at last reveals the man behind the headlines--passionate and humorous, devoted and loyal. Never before has Teller told his story as fully as he does here. We learn his true position on everything from the bombing of Japan to the pursuit of weapons research in the post-war years. In clear and compelling prose, Teller chronicles the people and events that shaped him as a scientist, beginning with his early love of music and math, and continuing with his study of quantum physics under Werner Heisenberg. He also describes his relationships with some of the century's greatest minds--Einstein, Bohr, Fermi, Szilard, von Neumann--and offers an honest assessment of the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the founding of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and his complicated relationship with J. Robert Oppenheimer. Rich and humanizing, this candid memoir describes the events that led Edward Teller to be honored or abhorred, and provides a fascinating perspective on the ability of a single individual to affect the course of history.
Customer Reviews:
An apology?.......2006-06-28
Sometimes you get the feeling that Edward Teller is simply making too many excuses. Maybe he is making them to preserve his record for posterity. A man who measured his influence by the number of enemies he had, he probably would not make excuses to justify his actions to his detractors. Given this stance, Teller was surprisingly thin-skinned, and unintended slights could cut him to the quick.
Yet you also get the feeling that Teller is being apologetic, that he wants to, but cannot quite admit, that personal misgivings and ambitions frequently coloured his massive and extraordinarily powerful rational power of thinking, that behind the domineering presence, there is hidden a sensitive man, larger than life and generous with his friends, who simply was overwhelmed by his alter egos. Unfortunately, when you are as brilliant and vocal as Teller, your mistakes leave a much bigger mark on history than those of lesser mortals, and you cannot erase the voices that the will emerge from the void of the future that will judge you. Those voices would speak to the mute volume of memoirs that Teller penned towards the end of his years, as a heroic and unique survivor of an extraordinary time.
No scientist in the latter half of the twentieth century has exercised so much influence over governments and the arms race as Teller. No scientist has been maligned so much for his actions. And yet Teller's life began in innocence, in fair Budapest in 1908, when the world was a much different place. When he died in 2003, it had profoundly changed, and Teller was no small contributor to that change. Teller's childhood was marked by a deeply ingrained hatred of communism, inculcated by the regimes that were toppling democracy and enforcing the rule of force in Hungary. Teller was not alone in having these resentments; his compatriots John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, Theodor von Karman, and Leo Szilard also felt them. All would become exceptionally brilliant scientists, all would flee from totalitarianism and immigrate to the United States, all would be instrumental in the making of the atomic bomb and the harnessing of the nuclear genie, yet nobody would demonstrate a temperament as volatile and emotional as Teller and nobody would have such far-reaching influences that would define a period of turmoil and imminent catastrophe. Teller's descriptions of his childhood make heartwarming reading, they speak of a lost time and place, the idyllic and innocent paradise of central and Eastern Europe, which would get heartbreakingly devastated and permanently marred in a few years. Teller talks with painful affection about his childhood friends, many of whom perished in the concentration camps in World War 2. He tries to hide the agony of being different and special in a matter of fact tone, sometimes laced with humour, and with affectionate Hungarian poems; throughout his life, Teller retained a great appreciation of literature and poetry, and was a pianist of almost professional caliber.
Many months back, I compared Teller to Otto Octavius of Spiderman-2 fame in a post, in which I summarized the details of his life. Teller grew in fame and achievements through definitive decades of the century- as a graduate student with Werner Heisenberg, as a professor in England and in the United States, and finally, as the foremost and most enthusiastic proponent and designer of nuclear weapons that probably will ever be born. During this time, he rubbed shoulders, and also fell from the graces of, the greatest minds of the century- along with his fellow Hungarians, Teller stood with Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bethe, and scores of others. He went down in history as Leo Szilard's chauffer; he drove Szilard to meet Einstein, the meeting in which the eminent physicist wrote the now famous letter warning President Roosevelt of the discovery of nuclear fission, and the ominous possibility of the Nazis building an atomic bomb. After this incident, Teller, more than anyone else, worked to make US authorities aware of the gravity of the situation. It is an amusing irony of politics and history that is was not American scientists but `enemy aliens' from Europe who egged the US Government on to pursue the development of atomic energy.
Teller's journey into fame and infamy, into endearment and notoriety, began with his work on the Manhattan Project. In the summer of 1942, at Oppenheimer's beckoning, he joined an elite and small group of physicists who worked out the basic physics of atomic weapons in Oppenheimer's office at the University of California, Berkeley. While the other participants, including Hans Bethe, pursued the elusive goal of trying to achieve an explosion that would shine brighter than a thousand suns, Teller was distracted by the power of the sun itself; whether instead of fission, one could achieve nuclear fusion by using the energy of a fission weapon, thus harnessing the source of energy that has kept the sun burning for billions of years. Needless to say, this was distracting at a time when the fission bomb was far from being a reality. Another time, Teller raised the ominous possibility of the atmosphere getting ignited by an atomic explosion, a possibility that was quickly shown to be `almost impossible' by the thoroughgoing Hans Bethe.
During the Manhattan Project, Teller was outraged when he was passed over by Oppenheimer to be director of the theoretical division, the key section of the project. Oppenheimer instead chose Bethe, who was much more consistent and meticulous, and not given to wild, if brilliant, fantasizing like Teller. When Teller refused to work on the complex implosion calculations that were necessary for the atomic bomb, the patient Oppenheimer formed a group for Teller to pursue his own ideas on fusion. This created a gap in the fission group, a gap that had to be filled with three or four other scientists to compensate for the brilliant Hungarian's abilities. From this time on, in spite of some valuable contributions, Teller created more problems than solved them. His late-night piano playing did not help. As was aptly put, "Teller managed to keep more Nobel Laureates awake than he could have done at any other place in the world".
Teller was brilliant beyond words, but highly erratic and inconsistent, volatile and moody, and somewhat sloppy in his calculations. These were qualities that would define his persona and his actions in crucial times to come. As a scientist put it, "Nine out of ten of Teller's ideas are bad. He needs other more methodical people to bring the tenth idea to fruition, which is usually a stroke of genius"
After the war, while most of his colleagues withdrew from atomic research or pursued arms disarmament, Teller became a hawk and a vehement anti-communist. He was enormously helped by the political climate of the times, and rode on the emotions of the zealous anti-communists in the state department. In his pursuit of the hydrogen bomb, which he deemed necessary to prevent the Soviet Union from dominating the world, he became an obsessive fanatic. In spite of this, when he lobbied vigorously in 1949 for the government to support a crash program for development of that awesome and horrible weapon, he had no technical proof that it would work. The proof came in 1950, largely supplied by a brooding, reserved and brilliant Polish émigré mathematician, Stanislaw Ulam. The division of credit between Teller and Ulam as to the crucial idea which made the H-bomb work, is part of nuclear and historical folklore and debate, and I would not delve into it right now because it would be a colourful topic for another post. It is a constant controversy that never seems to die, although now most people believe that it was Ulam who at least was solely responsible for the initial idea; that of using the enormous compression supplied by an atomic weapon to efficiently and successfully cause nuclear fusion. Ulam seems to have thought of shock waves that would do this, while Teller quickly realized that the radiation from the fission explosion would do the job much more quickly. Whatever the case was, Teller has never given due credit to Ulam in public, and has proudly worn the epithet of `father of the H-bomb' on his lapel (Bethe has drolly remarked that Teller should actually be the `mother of the H-bomb' because he carried the baby for so long...)
It is also to Teller's discredit that the US detonated their first fusion behemoth in 1952, thus frustrating the efforts of many to bring about a moratorium on testing that would have stalled Soviet H bomb development. Many also believe that Teller actually encouraged that development with his insistence on an early test; the radioactive fallout from an H-bomb test contains the characteristic signature of the design of the bomb, which could have made the Russians aware of the crucial idea of compression.
Teller's damning testimony at Robert Oppenheimer's infamous security hearing in 1954 also has become part of nuclear folklore that has rankled deep. While allegations that Oppenheimer actually hampered H-bomb development have now been shown to be false and misunderstood based on recently declassified documents (Priscilla McMillan, 2005), and while allegations about his loyalty were too far-fetched and preposterous to be considered anyway, Oppenheimer's bizarre testimony a few years before about a left leaning friend that cost the friend his career, was apparently seen by Teller as a betrayal. Later, Teller justified his testimony against Oppenheimer as a reinforcement of his ideals of not behaving ambiguously with friends. He seems to have overlooked the fact that his testimony itself had a calculated ambiguity which turned out to have devastating consequences that cost Oppenheimer his security clearance. In the years that followed, Teller's true intentions and behaviour have never been fully explained, and he never chose to do that in interviews, but whatever the facts, recently Teller has been appearing more and more as the villain in a period which all too resembled the current age of neo-conservative coercion and informal totalitarianism.
In the years after the hearing, Teller suffered a fallout with most of his friends in the community, who had testified on the brilliant Oppenheimer's behalf. But given the political climate of the times, Teller had no problem in endearing himself to hawks in the government who greatly valued his espousal of the development of grotesquely absurd and powerful weapons of destruction, and his belligerent anti-communist policies. Teller embraced and was one of the key forces behind both the putative anti-ballistic missile system of 1960 and the much debated Star Wars system of the 1980, both of which could not materialize because of the efforts of dedicated scientists and administrators who showed the technical and financial futility of the systems, and the escalation of the arms race that they would engender. But even today, proponents of National Missile Defense (the `son of Star-Wars') seem to be in the shadow of Teller's ghost.
Why am I talking about all this, instead of talking about Teller's book? Because for a man as complex and influential as Teller, one hopes that he would be demystified at least to some extent through his own book, written at a time when he could be expected to have very different perspectives on the life he has lived and the times in which he participated. Many people think Teller is emphatically answerable to history. Many activists in the 60s and 70s even labeled him as a war criminal. They think that he should justify all the heretofore-mentioned actions. Many hate him and would like to see his reputation permanently soiled. Nobel laureate Isidor Rabi, one of the clearest and most authoritative consciences of the nuclear age, actually said that we would have been better off if Teller had never been born. Whatever Edward Teller says, his friends as well as foes would be most eager to hear.
Unfortunately, I believe he fails to make a case in the book, which is otherwise extremely readable and an important document that is an ode to a remarkable age, written by one of its most important observers and participants. Most of his statements are as ambiguous as the testimony he rendered for Oppenheimer (an incident on which he predictably spends more time in the book than on any other in his life). Quite upsettingly, the book appears as another series of excuses and partial and foggy explanations that would possibly serve to absolve him. But I believe that Edward Teller had always had a very big problem saying sorry. While he does make an effort at apology for a few of his actions, I think that the weight of history is too much upon his shoulders for him to shrug it off in a massive admission of culpability. This is unfortunate, since Teller craved attention all his life, wanted to be part of the establishment and wanted to appease his friends. In the end, he probably found it much easier to be part of the anti-establishment (which ironically is usually called the establishment). He would rather face history's accusations than be ordinary. Which seems to be another misfortune, because Teller would not have been ordinary by any standards, even if he had chosen a different path in life. One suspects that if he had spent half the time he spent in weapons advocacy, in doing serious science instead, he would have stood in the same pantheon as Enrico Fermi and Hans Bethe, both Nobel laureates. The few books on physics which he has penned are a delight to read. His passion for physics and his astonishing understanding of it shines through untrammeled. He had ideas that were flowing, a tremendously fertile imagination, and an astoundingly creative mind. He made important contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, and collaborated with some of the most important scientists of the century.
But he was not a team player. He frequently let his emotions override his rational intentions, and then became inadvertently, a slave to the consequences fostered by them. He wanted to be in the driver's seat all the time, where he could run the show surrounded by a bunch of yes-men. He was extremely ambitious, but finally ended up becoming more infamous than famous. He sank into the spiral generated by his own brilliance and his beliefs that came about by a complex combination of his fierce anti-communism, the traumas of his childhood, and his unique perception of the world around him. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he lived in a time and place where he could make an enormous difference. Maybe it is fitting that not Bill Clinton but George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two months before his death.
And yet, in the end, what one remembers is the early part of the book, when Teller talks fondly about his time in Hungary, in Germany, in Rome and England, and in the Unites States. He talks about his lifelong friendships with Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, and John von Neumann. He warmly recounts the trip when he and his wife had to amusingly watch Hans Bethe's preoccupation with his future wife, Rose; apparently, Bethe had met Rose earlier, and in 'ten minutes' had fallen desperately in love with her, and the couple wanted to get to know each other as well as possible during the trip. Teller gives us rare peeks into the human side of revered scientific giants.
Again, through the thicket of emotions, prejudices, and justifications, one can catch glimpses of the sensitive Teller, the Teller who was generous to his true friends almost to a fault, was warm to his students, and was a model of scientific integrity. The Teller who was loved by his colleagues and friends before his altercations with them, the Teller who sounds like a champion of freedom when he talks about his ideas for world government, the Teller who proposed to his childhood sweetheart Mici in the presence of cackling geese on the banks of the Danube...one wonders what happened to that Teller in later years, why he lay dormant, what those years of mistrust and dissent did to him. One feels sorry for the great man, but one also feels a sense of unwanted resentment towards him. In the end, no matter how eloquently he advocates his causes, it would be best to say that Edward Teller was complicated, and leave it at that yet again. Let that encompass all of him.
Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?.......2005-07-25
This is the English major's review, that is, the review of someone not particularly interested in science or politics. Bought the book because I heard Savage interview Teller a few years ago; in retrospect, I think Savage read part of the unauthorized bio on air, not Teller's memoirs, and it was those racy psychological bits that I wanted to revisit now in conjunction with personal questions. I mistakenly picked up "Memoirs" and struggled to get through the first quarter with its geeky tea-and-ping-pong interludes, which read like my ninety-year-old grandfather after a glass of port at the Thanksgiving table. Teller's dictation style of authorship is not intimate, and my stylistic gripes return toward the end of the book when he relates how such-and-such a captain of industry and his charming wife hosted them, etc. and in the generally weak epilogue.
But, wow, sometimes I couldn't turn pages fast enough. Where can you go to match this? "We all were lying on the ground, supposedly with our backs turned to the explosion. But I had decided to disobey that instruction and instead looked straight at the bomb." Tolstoy, maybe. The best memoirs, as with the best fiction, give clues to the great question of how to live and explore strands of fate, choice, history. For (fictional) characters of cognitive complexity and depth, one could consider Hamlet-or Teller's portrayal of Oppenheimer and Bohr.
The book nurtured me with throw-away comments one might do well to adopt as life philosophies: "Bohr was the embodiment of complementarity, the insistence that every important question has opposite sides that appear mutually exclusive; understanding of the question becomes possible only if the reality on both sides is acknowledged." At a certain point I began mining the memoirs as if reading wisdom literature. Bohr's definition of an expert, as "one who, from his own painful experiences, has discovered all the mistakes one can commit in a very narrow field," Lawrence on risk-taking, Teller's experience of shunning, the recognition of right of dissent, opposition of elitism and limitations on knowledge, all are worthy of reflection because they result from pressurized experience.
Captivating memoir.......2003-09-22
If you have an interest in the history of science
and technology, and in the scientific personalities who
carried out the revolution in physics in the first
half of the 20th century, you will be captivated
by this book.
I picked it up because of my interest in
the history of physics, and because Teller has
held such a central role in the transformation
from small science to Big Science.
Hans Bethe, with whom Teller had some difficulties
during the Manhattan Project, reviewed the book
very positively in Physics Today. I was prepared
to continue to dislike Teller, because of his testimony
in the Oppenheimer hearings and his advocacy of Star
Wars, but he nevertheless quickly won me over.
Teller comes across, in his own account, as a
collegial, cooperative, driven man, who cared
greatly about both his scientific and technical work
and his relations with his colleagues.
After Teller's 1954 testimony at the Oppenheimer
security clearance hearing, Teller was vilified.
Here, he gets to explain why he testified as he
did, and how it was just one of several very
stupid things that he did in his career. (The
stupid thing in this case was to neglect to
explain that his uncertainty about Oppenheimer's
clearance was due to a transcript he was shown
about Oppenheimer's fabricated story
that implicated his friend Chevalier, and
not to Oppenheimer's opposition to development
of the H-bomb, which was widely shared among
physics academics.)
Teller makes an effort to explain the scientific
challenges in his work, such as in the early
days of quantum mechanics when he worked on
molecular dynamics. For example, he explains
Landau's reaction to what is now called the
Jahn-Teller effect (and which Teller says should be
called the "Landau-Jahn-Teller effect"), giving the
basic physical principle involved and the reason for
Landau's initial puzzlement.
Teller played an important role after WW2 in
setting up the engineering principles necessary
to make nuclear reactors safe, and in getting them
implemented.
There are many delightful anecdotes, and even
some poems that Teller wrote. His lifelong friend
Maria Goppert Mayer saved all his letters, and
these provided much material that Teller
used to refresh his memory and select from.
I found the period from 1946 until the establishment
of Livermore Lab particularly interesting and
suspenseful. This book leaves no doubt that
Teller led a fascinating life.
Remarkable and Controversial Autobiography.......2003-02-21
There is no way that everyone would agree as to what events, or even list of events were the most noteworthy of the 20th Century. I do believe that most would agree that the splitting of the atom, the creation of atomic and then thermonuclear weapons would likely have a place on any list. If the controversy surrounding the use of nuclear power to create electricity for public consumption is added, I think the topic has a place assured on any list.
One person among many who was at the center of these topics, events and developments is Dr. Edward Teller. He stands out from the groups he was involved in for many reasons but two are for his longevity in to his 90s' and the participation in the direction of all the associated research his long life has allowed him, and secondly for the controversy he often found himself at the center of. Another book I read not long ago, "Brotherhood of the Bomb", went in to great detail about the very controversial decision to strip Dr. Robert Oppenheimer of his security clearance and the role that Dr. Teller was said to have played in the security clearance not being renewed. In this book of just over 600 pages a large portion is spent on the issue including many pages of transcripts from the actual hearing when Dr. Teller answered questions with Dr. Oppenheimer present.
I don't believe it is fair to judge from a handful of pages culled from over 1,000 whether Dr. Teller alone was the cause of the non-renewal of the security clearance. My impression from what I read was that it was clear there was a strong group that did not want the clearance continued, and to the extent anything negative was said about Dr. Oppenheimer they were going to make the most of it. Unless the pages that are shared intentionally mislead, Dr. Teller repeatedly stated he did not believe Dr. Oppenheimer would intentionally harm the security of The United States. However, if Dr. Teller believed that stating that Dr. Oppenheimer's actions slowed the development of the Hydrogen Bomb development by several years were not going to greatly harm Dr. Oppenheimer, he was either naïve or calculating then, and or now. Only he knows the answer.
There are many large topics this book deals with but one that fascinated me was the perception of Nuclear Power Generation plants for electrical production for civilian use. Unless the reader knows the answer prior to reading the book they may be surprised by what percentage of electricity is still produced by nuclear plants in the USA today. It does not rival France or Japan, but the numbers are still quite large.
In the end perception will carry the day. On average over 50,000 people die every year in The United States in car accidents. An Iranian airliner crashed yesterday killing 307 people, 400,000+ die annually from tobacco use in the USA annually. However, we continue to drive, fly, and about 50,000,000 continue to smoke.
Are nuclear powered plants 100% safe, they are not and the book does not suggest they have been or that they are. The book does discuss the Three Mile Island accident, the incident in England, and the folly that was Chernobyl. Chernobyl must be in a category of its own for the shear scale of stupidity, negligence and intentional harm that was allowed to take place at that plant. To use the former USSR's conduct with nuclear energy as a measure for the rest of the world is absurd.
Despite decades of knowledge that remaining dependent largely on imported oil is shear negligence the reality remains that we as a nation continue to do so. Events are still fluid but we may have a second war in just over 10 years because an individual that controls a nation in the heart of the planet's current oil supply makes us nervous. All the talk of alternative methods of energy have amounted to meaningless practical change, environmental concerns prohibit the pursuit of much domestic oil, so the question remains, what are we going to do?
There are indeed some hybrid cars on the road and there are some that use natural gas, and there is the latest promise of hydrogen fuelled cars that made for a sound byte at the most recent state of the union address. Taken as a whole, their practical impact is nearly meaningless.
Many may not like Dr. Teller's suggestions, and I too would prefer clean production of the energy we need. But the reality is we will change nothing until there is a massive and permanent impact on our economy and or way of life, and then it will be a prolonged painful transition, as opposed to being serious about the issue now and using all talents available to create reliable, sustainable clean energy sources. This man who is in his 90s' has seen decade after decade go by with no change to our consumption of fossil fuels. Those decades are lost, how many more will be?
The Best Biography I've Ever Read.......2002-07-14
I am only 12 years old, but believe me when I say that this is one of the best books I've ever read! I had to do a report on a scientist for school and I chose Edward Teller because I had heard of him from my mother and he sounded interesting. Rather than being just another boring book report, I really did enjoy this book. It gave me a lot of information for my report and was not incredibly hard to read. I decided to do a movie for my report and filmed it as if Teller were writing journal entries. I got a 100++ on my project which is what I would give this book...a 100++!
Average customer rating:
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Edward Teller and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb (Unlocking the Secrets of Science)
John Bankston
Manufacturer: Mitchell Lane Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
 Science & Technology
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| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
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Physics
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
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General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
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| Technology
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ASIN: 1584151080 |
Book Description
Often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb," Edward Teller believes that the device he helped invent, with its potential to kill millions of people, actually made the world a safer place. "I am still asked on occasion whether I am not sorry for having invented such a terrible thing as the hydrogen bomb," he says. "The answer is, I am not." Teller adamantly believes that what he did saved lives. He believes that his discoveries changed the world for the better. A pioneer of the atomic age and one of the many brilliant scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, Edward Teller is as controversial today as he was fifty years ago.
A Hungarian immigrant, Teller fled Nazi Germany and successfully proved that the atomic bomb could be used without creating a world-destroying chain reaction.
But his choices and beliefs have been questioned not just by citizens and government officials, but also by his fellow scientists. Some regard him as a genius and some as a hated person who developed a weapon 1,000 times more destructive than the first atom bomb. Regardless of the opinion people have of him, his impact on the twentieth century is undeniable.
Customer Reviews:
too short a discussion.......2005-03-08
Bankston offers a primary school readership an introduction to the story of the founder of the American hydrogen bomb. He relates Teller's life in the context of World War 2 and the Cold War. A rather bleak backdrop that reflects the sombre nature of the story.
Given the background of the audience and the length of this slim book, there is little discussion of the complexities of Teller's long life and the controversial issues and passions he evoked in many. Perhaps a young reader will be interested enough to pursue a fuller history of the man and his times.
Book Description
A personal tour through the world of physics--from Newton's laws to quantum mechanics--by one of the most celebrated physicists of the twentieth century.
In Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics, Teller returns to the fundamentals of physics to share with readers his unbridled enthusiasm for the world of physical reality--from the nature of molecules to quantum mechanics and superconductors, from the elementary laws of thermodynamics to how planets, asteroids, and comets develop their orbits. By simplifying the math and forgoing the often-confusing technical jargon, Teller helps the reader break through physic's bewildering formulas and equations and get to the wonders of our physical universe. A timeless and personal explanation of the importance of physics in our life, Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics is certain to become a classic.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent read, excellent man.......2005-10-31
Good subject matter from a man who knew and developed modern physics.
Not only was Teller a great man in advancing pure and applied physics, he is also one of the great unsung heros of the United States and the free world.
best forgotten.......2004-06-09
With so many good competitors available today
there was no reason to resurrect this fossil.
The real essence of Teller.......2003-09-13
I came away from reading this book (and from occasionally meeting and working with Teller) convinced that the essence of the man was not the political animal familiar to the public, but rather someone driven by a wonderfully childlike curiosity about any and all aspects of science. You may feel that the world would have been better off without him, but read this book anyway. I'll bet you wind up agreeing with Bob Parks of the American Physical Society: "Physics will be less interesting without him."
A Great Teacher.......2003-01-06
This is a wonderful book that is very clearly written and joy to read and read again. Dr. Teller shows how some of the most
difficult ideas can be made clear by examples. I liked his
conversational style, it reads as if Dr. Teller is talking directly to you. This is one of the top books on physics with the general reader in mind. Some of the best books for the general reader were written by the greatest contributors in the field. Other selections by: Einstein, Max Born, Richard Feynman, do well for the general reader but requires a little more math, ... not hard math, simple but rich math full of motion, ... math you need to visualize.
Dr. Teller helps you visualize ideas, as good teachers do.
I was very happy to see this book back in print having barrowed the hard cover book from the library a number of times just to hear again how Dr. Teller said it; and to make clear again an idea that puzzled me. It is well worth reading and owning.
Customer Reviews:
Edward Teller Review.......2006-04-18
Edward Teller worked in the field of nuclear physics during the Cold War on behalf of the United States. He was involved with the Manhattan project in the 1930s. After World War II he started work on creating a hydrogen bomb. He met much resistance over this project because the government was reluctant to build new war weapons after the war had just ended. It was not until the Soviet Union tested their atomic bomb in 1949, did the construction of a hydrogen bomb become a priority for the United States. It is because of his work on the hydrogen bomb, that Teller is sometimes called the "father of the hydrogen bomb." This biography not only provides insight into the life and mind of the "father of the hydrogen bomb," but also into the nuclear age. The authors talked directly to Edward Teller about many of the subjects in the book. Teller is quoted directly in many cases. The authors seem to have a respect for Teller but try and portray him with as little bias as possible. It is said that Edward Teller was the basis for the character Doctor Strangelove in the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It seems as though the authors wrote this biography to get a closer look at Teller and show that he indeed was not Dr. Strangelove.
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