Alfred Nobel Quotes
I would like to see invented a substance or a machine with such terrible power of mass destruction that war would thereby be made impossible forever.
Alfred Nobel, 1833-1896, Swedish Munitions Manufacturer and Philanthropist, Conversation with Bertha von Suttner (recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1905), who recorded it in her journal, 1876
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The President had asked for the views of the Joint Chief’s of Staff. At the time, the major U. S. defense doctrine depended on our nuclear deterrent which if used against the Russians would have meant mutually assured destruction since they had enough of a nuclear arsenal to destroy America as we know it.
The atomic bomb had just been used the year before. However, in the next decades, nuclear weapons were not used again as those nations with nuclear capability also had potential enemies with nuclear weapons. The fear of Mutually Assured Destruction prevented nuclear weapons from being used for a long time.
The Scientific Project that developed the Atomic Bomb
This prediction was sadly terribly accurate. Nuclear terrorism is a realistic threat at the millennium. Pannekoek was one of the first to predict it.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. He held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous. He owned Bofors, which he redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. Having read a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to the Nobel Prize institution. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him in the second half of the 20th century. His name also survives in companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which are descendants of mergers with companies that Nobel established.
