Memoirs by Edward Teller, Perseus, 拢24.99/$35,
ISBN 1903985129 (January in Britain)
DIRECTOR Stanley Kubrick鈥檚 Dr Strangelove, anti-hero of the eponymous 1963
movie and epitome of the mad nuclear scientist, was allegedly modelled in part
on the Hungarian-American physicist Edward Teller. Widely considered to be
鈥渇ather of the H-bomb鈥濃�攁 description that Teller believes is in 鈥渂ad
taste鈥濃�攈e has long been the scientist that bien pensant liberals love to
hate.
Teller cheerfully admits to being 鈥渁 monomaniac with several manias鈥�, as
Enrico Fermi put it. Teller鈥檚 manias were the desirability of nuclear energy,
the value of nuclear weapons as deterrents, the inhumanity of communism, the
shallowness of most environmentalists, and so on. He speaks warmly of many
Republican leaders, lauding the common sense of Ronald Reagan and the
statesmanship of Nelson Rockefeller. He has correspondingly little time for JFK,
whom he roundly insulted when they first met, while the President was giving him
an award.
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These hefty memoirs are, for the most part, an apologia pro vita sua
鈥攁 defence of his behaviour. Whatever you think of him, there is no
denying that he has written this account (assisted by Judith Shoolery) with the
firm intention of presenting his case honestly and clearly.
Nowhere is this more evident than in his description of the 1954 trial to
review the security status of Robert Oppenheimer, formerly the distinguished
head of the Manhattan Project that was set up to build the atomic bomb. Partly
as a result of Teller鈥檚 testimony, Oppenheimer was judged to be a security risk.
Teller repeatedly admits that he was 鈥渟tupid鈥� to give any evidence, and he
deeply regretted the outcome, although he stands by his observation that
Oppenheimer鈥檚 judgement was sometimes peculiar and unaccountable.
This testimony led to Teller鈥檚 virtual excommunication from the mainstream
scientific community in the US, although he remained friends with several
illustrious colleagues, including the cyclotron inventor Ernest Lawrence, Leo
Szilard and Fermi, who conceived the nuclear chain reaction. This experience
seems to have been no less painful than the two periods of exile he had
experienced earlier: in the 1920s, due to virulent anti-Semitism in his native
Hungary, and in 1933 because of Nazism in Germany.
Teller was one of a truly remarkable group of exiled Hungarian scientists who
settled in the US before the Second World War. Among his colleagues were
Szilard, the great physicist Eugene Wigner and the peerless mathematician John
von Neumann, whose high-speed thinking suggested to Teller the phenomenon of
neural superconductivity.
Teller more than held his own in this company, although regrettably we hear
little here about his contributions to science apart from his early work with
his advisor Werner Heisenberg, and with some of the other great pioneers of
quantum theory. Later, Teller seems to have become more interested in solving
practical problems than in getting involved with the never-ending quest to find
the ultimate structure of matter. He is much more concerned with giving us a
complete and meticulously detailed picture of his work on some of the grand
projects of modern science鈥攖he Manhattan project, building the H-bomb,
setting up the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Strategic Defense
Initiative. His participation in these controversial ventures was plainly
motivated by a firm belief in the power of advanced weapons to deter aggressors.
But he is not quite the fanatic he is often painted: for example, he profoundly
regrets that the atomic bomb was not first demonstrated to the Japanese to
encourage them to surrender, rather than used against them.
A recurring theme of these memoirs is Teller鈥檚 sensitivity to accusations
that he is hard-hearted. In one of the most moving passages, he describes his
return to Budapest on 1 December 1990, after the fall of communism and 54 years
after his previous visit. Despite his long absence, he was well known in his
native land: an Internet survey to find 鈥渢he best known and most respected
living Hungarian鈥�, conducted in Hungary in January 2000, ranked him third behind
two popular politicians. He says he is honoured by the company, but at the age
of 92 is 鈥渆specially pleased to be living鈥�.
It鈥檚 a shame that these memoirs went to press before 11 September. It would
have been fascinating to hear whether that day鈥檚 events led Teller to rethink
his belief that the most up-to-date nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent.
And he is certainly well placed to give us insights into any plans that might be
being hatched by Dr Strangeloves in the company of Osama bin Laden.