Edwars Teller Dead at 95

[CalMeacham]

I saw it in the paper this morning.

I’ve got mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I think he was right in pushing for the development of the hydrogen bomb, which I think Russia would have gone forward with, in any case. He was an incredibly clever man (read Rhodes, book Dark Sun).

On the other hand, he apparently collaborated in stripping Oppenheimer of his security clearance, according to Rhodes and others denied Stanislas Ulam credit for the Teller-Ulam configuration, and was way too enthusiastic in his support of things nuclear. His “Excaliber” “third generation nuclear device” is what pushed Reagan into his “Star Wars” speech back in 1983. Although it was a sweet piece of engineering, it was a pretty useless weapon, all things considered.

I met the man twice. Bushiest eyebrows you ever saw.

[UncleBeer]

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=210416
And here’s a GD thread about the accomplishments of Mr. Teller.

[Balance]

Here’s a final salute to the first–and probably only–man to light a cigarette with an atom bomb. I also had mixed feelings about some of his actions, but there’s no denying that he was a remarkable man.

[Zenster]

It’s hard to fault Teller’s extreme hatred of communism and the obsession he had with outpacing their weapons development. Nuclear bombs were one of the few military tools that could keep such a virulent and evil force at bay. That we successfully did so until communism collapsed under the strain of its own weight is quite possibly adequate justification for their invention.

It saddens me to think of all the trillions of dollars spent on the Cold War. However, it elates me to think that one of the most corrupt societies to manifest on the face of this earth is no more.

[CalMeacham]

Here’s a final salute to the first–and probably only–man to light a cigarette with an atom bomb. I also had mixed feelings about some of his actions, but there’s no denying that he was a remarkable man.

nitpick: I never heard of Teller doing it. There’s a story about a bomb designer doing it in John McPhee’s book The Curve of Binding Energy. I foget the guy’s name, but it wasn’t Teller.

[Balance]

Cal, I heard that it was Teller who did it–at the test of a bomb called the Scorpion, IIRC. After googling around a bit, though, it looks like the trick is more generally attributed to Ted Taylor–I imagine the similarity between the “Taylor” and “Teller” led to them getting swapped in the story I heard. Sorry about that.

[ShibbOleth]

From a January, 2002 interview (more here)

Oppenheimer was against the hydrogen bomb. He said we were making the god of destruction. I thought it was absolutely necessary. At the hearing, they pushed me to answer if Oppenheimer was a communist. I said he was a complicated man, and that I did not always understand his actions, and that I felt safer without him being in the loop. I was one of many witnesses. He lost his high-level security clearance thereafter. I did not label him a communist. I certainly did not. That assertion came from others.

…

I have regret connected to Hiroshima. We should have dropped the bombs not on Hiroshima but in Tokyo Bay. Ten million Japanese would have seen the blast and nobody would have been hurt. With the Japanese seeing that, we could have ended the war without killing. Or we could have dropped the atomic bomb over Tokyo at an altitude of twenty to thirty thousand feet, at eight o’clock in the evening, so they would have seen it and felt the shock. Hirohito would have seen the bomb and used it to surrender.