Edward Teller Quotes
I proved not only that stupidity is a general human property but that I possessed a full share of it.
Teller had been a strong proponent of developing the H-bomb. Oppenheimer, however, was opposed on moral and strategic grounds. Politically, Oppenheimer had a strong following, having been the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” and his opposition was hurting the political effort to vote the funds. The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Lewis L. Strauss, and some in the military decided that they would discredit Oppenheimer by claiming that he had communist leanings and his ideas were influenced by his pro-communist views. Oppenheimer was an easy victim as his brother had been a card-carrying communist and he had always known many left wing academic intellectuals in his university background. Despite the fact that all this had been known by the government security people for years and he had never let a secret leak, a hearing was held to determine whether Oppenheimer’s security clearance should be removed. The key testimony was given by General Groves, Oppenheimer’s former boss who had cleared Oppenheimer for security for years, and Teller. It was later discovered that Groves had been blackmailed into testifying against Oppenheimer. Later Teller, who defended his strong views contrary to Oppenheimer’s, regretted that he won his battle the way he did and told the world that Oppenheimer was a patriot and would never do anything knowingly to hurt his country. To the end of his career over 50 years afterward, there were still many scientists who would turn their backs on Teller at scientific meeting and would not even shake his hand.
Edward Teller, 1908-2003, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Nuclear Physicist, Director, Laurence Livermore National Laboratory, Reflection on the fact that he had testified that his boss, Robert Oppenheimer, didn’t deserve security clearance, Memoirs
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He meant to say “repository” and not “suppository”. The latter is a capsule of medicine that is placed inside the rectum.
Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care for the title, considering it poor taste. Throughout his life, Teller was known both for his scientific ability and for his difficult interpersonal relations and volatile personality.
