Posted on 03/07/2012 10:11:54 PM PST by Praxeologue
Teller testified against Oppenheimer at Oppenheimer's AEC security clearance hearing.When I was real young Oppenheimer was 'the hero' for ending WWII with 'his' A Bomb.
Then maybe 40 years ago on 60 Minutes(?) Teller was interviewed about the H Bomb and his 'vocal opponent' Oppenheimer. After that Heller became my good guy and I considered Oppenheimer almost a traitor for his opposition to the USA staying ahead of the Commie B-turds in the USSR with nukes.
(This would have been back in Mike Wallace's early 'good guy days')
MAD worked. We did not go to war with the USSR.
Teller was one of the influential voices that convinced Reagan to launch Star Wars.
The panoply of new weapons systems dazzled Russian war planners. In the end, they told the Politburo to sign the treaties and end the Cold War or the USSR would go bankrupt trying to counter SDI.
Teller was right both times.
Teller was very correct about Oppenheimer. That Oppenheimer’s political leanings were a threat to national security.
The article states or at least implies that Teller’s advocacy of Operation Plowshare, and other such projects was “loony” ... I strongly disagree. Long ago we should have worked on developing well-tuned small nukes for such purposes. If they had been developed, they could now be used in other mining operations (consider substituting for “fracking”, for example, as well as to release oil from shale) in addition to Plowshare. There may have been a body of knowledge to draw on for nuclear “bunker busters”, and rendered threats such as Iran’s deep constructions moot.
I believe that Teller was a very far-seeing man in many ways.
Agreed.
The only mistake Teller made was turning over calculations and engineering details to his grad students.
That is how the nuclear-pumped laser program died. Someone checked the math and discovered that the grad student made some mistakes. Ergo, the nuke laser would not work.
Edward Teller, the man that pronounced “Nuclear” as “NuKUlar”, just like GWB, those dummies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.