![]() By the time the war started he was a respected professor at George Washington University. Along with Szilard and Wigner Teller was the first one to raise the alarm about a potential German atomic project and he lobbied vigorously for the government to take notice. #EDWARD NETLER DRIVER#He was Leo Szilard's driver when Szilard went to meet Einstein in his Long Island cottage and got the famous letter to FDR signed by the great physicist. The fear of totalitarianism manifested itself early, leading Teller to be among the first ones to push for a US nuclear weapons program. This combined double blow brought about by the cruelties of communism and Nazism seems to have dictated almost every one of Teller's major decisions for the rest of his life. Later when Teller migrated to Germany, England and America he saw the noose of Nazism tightening around Europe. The chaos and uncertainty brought about by the communists left a deep impression on the sensitive young boy and traumatized him for life. Sadly Teller became a psychological casualty of Hungary's post-World War 1 communist and fascist regimes early in his childhood when he witnessed first hand the depredations visited upon his country by Bela Kun and then by Miklos Horthy. Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner and John von Neumann were all childhood friends. Growing up in progressive Hungary at the turn of the century as the son of a well to do Jewish father, Teller was part of a constellation of Hungarian prodigies with similar cultural and family backgrounds who followed similar trajectories, emigrated to the United States and became famous scientists. He was also often a warm person and clearly desired friendship with his peers, so why did he choose to alienate so many who were close to him? The answers to these questions undoubtedly lie in Teller's background. The question that continues to dog historians and scientists is simple why did Teller behave the way he did? By any account he was a brilliant man, well attuned to the massive overkill by nuclear weapons that he was advocating and also well attuned to the damage he would cause Oppenheimer and the scientific community by testifying against the father of the atomic bomb. Without Teller hydrogen bombs would still have been developed and without Teller Oppenheimer would still have been removed from his role as the government's foremost scientific advisor. In truth he deserved both less credit and less blame for his two major acts. Later in life he often complained that the public had exaggerated his roles in both the hydrogen bomb program and in the ousting of Oppenheimer, and this contention was largely true. Ironically it is the two most publicly known facts about Teller that are also probably not entirely accurate. It's a phenomenon that is a mainstay of politics but Teller's case sadly indicates that even science can be put into the service of such misuse of power To me Teller will always be a prime example of the harm that brilliant men can do - either by accident or design - when they are placed in positions of power as the famed historian Richard Rhodes said about Teller in an interview, "Teller consistently gave bad advice to every president that he worked for". Teller is best known to the general public for two things: his reputation as the "father of the hydrogen bomb" and as a key villain in the story of the downfall of Robert Oppenheimer. Edward Teller was born on this day 106 years ago. ![]()
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