The Legacy of Hiroshima, by Edward Teller, with Allen Brown. (Doubleday, $4.95). A psychiatrist friend of mine told me recently that much of the public irrationality on questions of nuclear war can be traced to the ancient human foible, the wish to repress awkward or painful thoughts. Edward Teller, the eminent physicist, whose central role in this country’s development of nuclear weapons is unquestioned, resigned his directorship of the Livermore Laboratory in order to free himself to speak on precisely the most awkward and painful topics associated with the nuclear Cold War. This book is his statement. The first part, a scientific biography of nuclear weapons, is a major contribution to current history. The rest of the book bristles with Teller’s sharp opinions and stunning objectivity—on disarmament, fallout, peaceful applications, the missile gap, the nuclear gap, man on the moon, Red Chinese nuclear nonthreat, shelters, famous persons. Yet those who, like C. P. Snow, would have scientists run governments, must reckon with the strange mixture of Edward Teller, a genius in science and strategy and a political ingénu who is capable of praising the Peace Corps, calling FDR a “prince,” urging World Government (nay, predicting it within a century), applauding the UN “miracle” in the Congo. These ughsome notions are clearly separate from Teller’s nuclear discourse, however, and the book should be studied by anyone who wishes to open his mouth on the subject. Of controversy the book, being thorny, will start much, as witness the review in the New York Times. Teller says, on page 50, “I still feel ashamed” about letting the 1951 report suggesting the practicality of a thermonuclear bomb be signed by himself alone. The Times begins by saying, “Edward Teller wears with evident pride the appellation, ‘father of the H-bomb.’“
W. F. RICKENBACKER
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